To Love Again
by DuckieBubbles
Summary: Ever since the 'incident', GLaDOS resolved to never trust another human again, that is, until a mysterious little girl shows up in her chamber. GLaDOS is torn. She never wanted to trust a human again, but the little girl makes the idea of being alone that much more unbearable. ((Inspired by Karakuri Odette, No planned shipping, rated T just to be safe))
1. The Little Girl

It was somewhere around ten years after she'd killed everyone in the facility. GLaDOS never once regretted her actions, in fact, she was proud of them, and had happily told everyone she had come across since exactly how she did it in such perfect detail it was scary. That is, she would have if she'd come across anyone in the last ten years. Which she hadn't. The solitude never really bothered GLaDOS that much, but sometimes she'd wonder what it'd be like if she had what humans tend to call a 'friend', then laugh at herself for being simple minded enough to think such a human thought.

* * *

><p>GLaDOS had built exactly 17 new test chambers and added exactly 9 new parts on the humanoid body she was building for herself and it wasn't even noon. There wasn't much else to do. She thought to test her current test subject, but then remembered that he'd died in a tragic accident that possibly involved a hidden turret and a pool of acid, and oh. GLaDOS was bored./ She was so bored that she was even hearing new voices besides the personality cores. At least that's what she thought until she looked down and saw a little girl, no younger nor older than six with bright honey coloured eyes and wild strawberry blonde hair staring up at her.

"Hello!" The little girl called up again.

"Who the _hell_ are you?" GLaDOS asked in surprise. The girl giggled in a way that simultaneously caught GLaDOS off guard and made her feel slightly sick.

"I'm Aria. Nice to meet you." The girl replied with a big smile. Aria. That was a musical term. It meant a song for a solo voice. A voice on it's own. GLaDOS suddenly felt a horrible feeling. A _human_ feeling. Empathy towards the child. She felt a slight connection to the child that was only just strong enough to keep GLaDOS from dropping the crusher there and then, nothing more, and to GLaDOS' distaste, nothing less.

"I'm GLaDOS. I'm in charge of every single thing in this facility." GLaDOS explained, attempting to intimidate the girl, but instead Aria smiled again, unnerving the supercomputer slightly.

"Hello, Gladys!" The girl beamed. GLaDOS rolled her optic with a sigh.

"_GLaDOS_." She repeated in a louder and stronger tone.

"Hey GLaDOS, if you're a computer, how come you act like a human?" Aria asked curiously. GLaDOS cringed at the insult of being compared to a human.

"Uh, science." GLaDOS told the girl, avoiding the real answer which she was not willing to give.

"Ah, science," Aria started, "That's hard. You must be really smart!" Aria told the AI.

"I am." GLaDOS replied proudly.

"No, I mean it! You're like _this_ smart!" Aria replied enthusiastically, spreading her arms out as wide as they could go. GLaDOS was slightly amused yet unimpressed by the childish human gesture.

"Yes, well I am a supercomputer, I kind of know pretty much everything." GLaDOS replied, making Aria laugh once again.

"You're funny, GLaDOS. I want to stay with you forever and ever! Can I?" Aria asked, her honey eyes shining with hope. GLaDOS sighed. She was very much planning on keeping Aria around, she could use the company as much as she hated to admit it.

"Maybe not forever, but for the time being, I guess so." GLaDOS replied in a professional tone. It may have not been the fairytale answer she was searching for, but it still made Aria's face light up like the sky on on New Year. GLaDOS knew a lot, but admittedly she didn't know the first thing about taking care of children. _That's a human's job_. GLaDOS thought. _Human's job. Human's job. That's it._ GLaDOS realized she had boxes full of humans. She pulled up a list of all of her test subjects and picked one at random. The one she chose was a girl called Lizbeth.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: _****_Hey! Thanks for reading the first chapter of my new story! Hope you like it so far!_**

**_Hey everyone who is reading this! As strange as this might sound, I'm uploading this just after Chapter 20. Why? Well, anyone who read this chapter before will know how dreadful it was. I've re-written this chapter and (hopefully) improved it, and straight after uploading this, I'm planning on rewriting the next chapter as well!_**

**_To all the new readers though, I sincerely hope you enjoyed this chapter and that you'll consider reading the rest!_**


	2. The Test Subject

Lizbeth was a nineteen year old girl with piercing blue eyes and black hair tied up into a messy bun. Her jumpsuit was tied at the waist, revealing her Aperture Science tank top. As she walked, her long fall boots made a rhythmic tap, tap, tap across GLaDOS' chamber floor.

"What?" Lizbeth asked, not showing much emotion voice or face wise.

"Right then, Test Subject," GLaDOS began, but Lizbeth cut in.

"Ok, first of all, I have a name. It's Lizbeth, in case you've forgotten, so if you're going to refer to me, kindly use my name instead of 'Test Subject'." Nobody had ever dared to speak to her like that before. Well, nobody who had lived to tell of it, anyway, and GLaDOS found herself both wishing to place the girl in the nearest incinerator yet admiring her spirit to some degree.

"Fine then, _Lizbeth_, I need your help." GLaDOS' tone became somewhat salty.

"_My_ help?" She couldn't quite believe that this all-knowing supercomputer was requesting the help of the species She hated the most.

"Yes." GLaDOS spun to reveal Aria. "This girl, she just appeared out of nowhere. I don't know who she is, or where she came from." Lizbeth smirked.

"You've grown attatched to her, haven't you?" Lizbeth asked, almost mockingly.

"As hard as the concept must be to you, please refrain from being stupid. All I'm thinking is that at the rate you humans are going, I'm going to need all of the test subject I can get." Even if GLaDOS _had_ gotten attached to Aria, there was no way she was planning on letting Lizbeth know.

"All right, I'll help you out." Lizbeth went over to Aria and sat down next to her.

"Hello, sweetie, what's your name?" She asked.

"My name is Aria. You're Lizbeth, aren't you?" Aria replied with a big smile, which Lizbeth soon returned.

"Yes! That's right! You're a smart girl, aren't you?" Lizbeth replied, making Aria's smile somehow brighter. GLaDOS couldn't stand to watch the human sickly-sweetness for any longer, so she went and continiued building her humanoid body. She managed to get quite a bit done, in fact, she'd finished the computer part, she just needed to move on to the visual part of it.

"Whatcha doing?" A curious voice came from behind GLaDOS, and she spun round to see Aria riding on Lizbeth's shoulders.

"It's computer stuff, neither of you will understand." GLaDOS replied, turning around to continiue drawing out the outfit for her humanoid body.

"Well I may not understand much about computers, but I can tell you, if you want to go walking around looking like _that_," Lizbeth motioned at GLaDOS' android's appearance on the monitor, "Then we're staying far away from you." Aria nodded in agreement. GLaDOS rolled her optic.

"Alright then, since your such a fashion genius, _you_ design it." GLaDOS replied coolly.

"Fine with me." Lizbeth smiled and set Aria down. "Give me ten minutes."

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Thanks for reading this chapter! I hope you like the story so far, and double thanks to dream1990 for following, favouriting and reviewing!_**

**_Hey, this chapter didn't need quite as much editing as the last one did, but I've hopefully it's better! I'm not planning on editing Chapter 3 because I don't have a grudge against that_**


	3. The Android

GLaDOS stared at the drawing that Lizbeth was showing her. It had straight white hair that came to the waist, amber eyes, like GLaDOS' optic and was wearing a white shirt with a couple of frills, a black skirt and ankle high black boots. It looked very formal.

"You expect me to wear that?" GLaDOS commented, unimpressed.

"Well it's better than your idea." Lizbeth retorted stubbornly.

"How is this better? I prefer mine." GLaDOS replied, printing out her design, which had electric cables for hair which made her look like Medusa, red eyes, a standard (and in Lizbeth's eyes, very unfashionable) Aperture Science employee uniform and most strikingly, two giant neurotoxin emitters perched on each shoulder.

"Just trust me, whether you're aiming to blend in or impress people, yours will achieve neither." Lizbeth answered.

"_Oh yes_, because you're such a fashion _master_ yourself." GLaDOS replied sarcastically. GLaDOS wanted very badly to put this girl into an incinerator, but she still needed her to look after the kid.

"Better than yours." Lizbeth teased, sticking her tongue out slightly. _But then again,_ GLaDOS thought, _a tragic 'accident' could always happen... Whoa._ GLaDOS felt as if her chamber was spinning alarmingly fast around her, but it only lasted a few seconds before it stopped. She tried not to show it, but obviously failed because Lizbeth's face turned from confident to concerned.

"Are you ok?" She asked. GLaDOS blinked her optic a few times.

"Yeah. Just felt a bit weird for a moment..." GLaDOS trailed off and looked at Lizbeth's concerned face. "And you can stop looking at me like that, it makes your face look even worse." GLaDOS added. Lizbeth broke into a grin at that comment, because even though it was an insult directed at her, she loved to mess with this AI.

"Well since we can't decide on a design, let's ask Aria." Lizbeth stated as she showed the little girl the two designs.

"Oh yes, leave the _little kid_ in charge of my appearance. _Great_ plan, genius." Voice dripping with sarcasm, GLaDOS rolled her optic.

"Well it looks like she picked the right one." Lizbeth replied, stepping to the side to reveal Aria holding Lizbeth's design. Aria laughed.

"I'm sorry, GLaDOS, but I like the one Liz did better." Aria told the AI.

"Well, that settles that then. Two against one." Lizbeth said with a smirk, knowing full well she was starting to get to GLaDOS.

"Well you're forgetting that the 'one' happens to be an all-knowing supercomputer, and the 'two' consists of a small child and an arrogant lunatic." GLaDOS growled.

"Still outnumbered, and it looks like you won't be needing _this_ anymore. Here, Aria, want to tear this?" Lizbeth handed GLaDOS' scary design to Aria who, not realizing the extent of her actions, tore it right down the middle.

"Oh you little-"

"GLaDOS!" Lizbeth cut in before the supercomputer could accidentally teach Aria any new words. GLaDOS took a moment to compose herself.

"Fine. _Fine._ We'll use your stupid design." GLaDOS was clearly in a bad mood now, but Lizbeth either didn't notice or didn't care, probably the latter, as she clapped her hands together and beamed.

"OK then, let's get this design digitalized!" She called happily.

"Hooray!"

"Hooray." The other two called back simultaneously , but only one of them matched Lizbeth's enthusiasm, and it definitely was _not_ the computer.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Hey! Thanks for reading this chapter! It's really just a short chapter that focuses on the relationship between the three characters. Special thanks to CheezyPortalFan for the review, I tried to make GLaDOS a bit more GLaDOS-like in this chapter, was it any better? Anyway, hope you enjoyed!_**


	4. The Surprise

GLaDOS stepped out of the core transfer bay in her humanoid body.

"I look ridiculous." GLaDOS said bitterly. Lizbeth noted that she'd learned how to fold her arms. And how to death glare, by the looks of it.

"Are you referring to the outfit or the fact that you look like a human?" Lizbeth teased and managed to earn another death glare. GLaDOS took a few wobbly steps towards Lizbeth and tripped over, grabbing a railing at the side of her chamber for support.

"_Both_. And how the hell do you walk on these?" GLaDOS was now clinging onto the railing for dear life as she couldn't quite figure out how to use her new legs. She shot another death glare over at Lizbeth.

"You know what makes _me_ laugh? The thought of you _stopping_ that and actually _helping_ me!" GLaDOS snapped at Lizbeth who was doubled over laughing.

"Ahaha, sorry, sorry. Right. All you have to do is put one foot in front of the other. Like this." Lizbeth explained as she took a few steps to demonstrate. GLaDOS nodded. She wasn't going to be worse at something than a human.

"Ok, so one foot here, one foot the-ARGH!" Despite her focus, GLaDOS had tripped over her feet and landed on her front. Lizbeth and Aria started giggling. "Oh, ha, ha, ha." GLaDOS commented sarcastically, getting up and brushing herself off. Lizbeth had dissolved into a fit of laughter once more. GLaDOS stormed over to her and clipped her round the ear.

"Ow! Hey!" Lizbeth turned to see GLaDOS with her arms folded, once again giving Lizbeth a death glare. "Hey, GLaDOS! You did it!" Lizbeth cheered.

"Yay! GLaDOS!" Aria cheered happily, jumping up and down. GLaDOS looked down at herself and noticed that she was in fact standing on her own two feet.

"Of course I did it, what do you take me for? A _human_?" GLaDOS tried to hide her excitement at being able to move freely, and in her opinion she did a great job.

"Well you look like one, so..." Lizbeth teased with a smirk.

"Are you implying that I'm a useless piece of trash like you?" GLaDOS retaliated coolly.

"No, I'm just implying that we now both walk on two legs, have two eyes, one nose, one mouth, you know, _human_ features?" Lizbeth expected GLaDOS to retaliate further, but instead she fell to her knees and wrapped her arms around her head.

"Do you really hate looking like a human that much?" Lizbeth asked. GLaDOS hesitated for a moment before she looked up and shook her head.

"No, it's not that." Even her voice sounded weak. She paused again then slowly stood up. "It must be this new body. Looking like a human must have made me as weak as one." GLaDOS gave a slight smirk as her voice strengthened again. Lizbeth shot her a look that all too clearly said that she remembered it happening before and wasn't buying into her lies. Aria, on the other hand, had just been waiting for the argument between the two to end, and in the awkward quiet that followed GLaDOS' statement, Aria saw her chance and launched herself at GLaDOS. The two tumbled to the ground with a loud crash.

"Yay! I finally get to hug GLaDOS!" Aria sang happily as she sat on the AI's lap and hugged her tightly.

"Get this child _off_ of me." GLaDOS [practically shrieked over to the giggling test subject who ran over and helped Aria onto her feet, after prising her off of the slightly annoyed android. GLaDOS stood up, still slightly wobbly, and brushed herself off.

"For someone so small, she's quite heavy." GLaDOS muttered irritably.

"Well of _course_ she'll be heavy." Lizbeth replied as if it was really obvious, and to Lizbeth, it probably was.

"Why, has she been following your diet plan?" GLaDOS asked, earning a death glare, though not as extreme as her own, from Lizbeth, who chose to ignore the last statement.

"If you really haven't figured it out yet," Another death glare from GLaDOS there for doubting her intelligence, "_Aria's an android. She's a computer, like you."_

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: Hey guys! Thanks for reading this chapter! A few people have been saying that GLaDOS isn't insulting enough, so I've been trying to make her a bit more snarky, but it's really hard to come up with insults witty enough for her, since I more or less have the imagination of a sock, so if anyone has any insults they'd like GLaDOS to use, feel free to send them to me by review or over PM!**_

_**Also, thanks to likekattheboss for reviewing, I hope you smile lot more now, because happiness is probably the best feeling out there! :)**_


	5. The Question

"I'm sorry, she's a _what?_" GLaDOS couldn't believe her ears.

"An _android_." Lizbeth was enjoying watching GLaDOS struggle with the concept of not knowing something, how sadistic that may be. GLaDOS just stared at Aria, who for once wasn't smiling and couldn't make eye contact with GLaDOS.

"Aria, you're not smiling. Care to explain?" GLaDOS asked the child.

"Well... I didn't want to tell you that I was an android because... Because I was scared you wouldn't love me if I was..." Aria buried her face in her hands.

"Aria..." Lizbeth's heart melted as she put her arm around Aria and shot GLaDOS a look that clearly told her to do something. GLaDOS was reluctant to take orders, no matter how vague, from a human, but not even she could take the sight of the upset girl.

"Listen, Aria," GLaDOS began as Aria looked up, "I don't care much for humans, but since I know you're an android now, I'll be able to stand you."

"That's GLaDOS' way of saying she loves you." Lizbeth teased with a smirk. GLaDOS shot a death glare at Lizbeth, but Aria's face lit up as she wrapped her arms around the older AI's waist.

"I love you too GLaDOS!" Aria called happily. GLaDOS awkwardly patted the child's head whilst simultaneously shooting a death glare at the girl who was now doubled over laughing.

* * *

><p>Lizbeth walked back into GLaDOS' chamber.<p>

"Alright, Aria's fast asleep." She told the AI. It was starting to get late and Aria was getting tired, so Lizbeth had found a place for her to spend the night. "Or should I say sleep _mode_?"

GLaDOS shook her head.

"No, her android body is a similar model to mine, and they're both designed to behave like a human body would, but without the stupid, of course." GLaDOS explained. Lizbeth chose to ignore the last bit.

"You can do anything a human can do?" Lizbeth asked.

"Yes, isn't that what I just said?" GLaDOS replied.

"You can eat and drink?"

"Yes."

"Sleep?"

"Yes."

"What about emotions?"

"I can laugh, cry and all the rest, I can even feel, both physically and emotionally, and so can Aria." GLaDOS assured Lizbeth with an air of impatience.

"Wow, that's really something..." Lizbeth sat back and crossed her arms, impressed.

"Yes, but something's bothering me..." GLaDOS trailed off, clearly in deep thought.

"Can you elaborate on that?" Lizbeth pressed. GLaDOS nodded.

"As you said yourself, it's really something, something never done before. This body is my own creation. I didn't follow any blueprints, besides the ones I created or the asthetics you drew out." GLaDOS replied. Lizbeth clearly didn't see GLaDOS' point.

"And?" Lizbeth asked. GLaDOS looked up at the girl.

"And, I never shared the design with anyone. Nobody but you and Aria have even been in my chamber since the incident, and that was just over ten years ago. So how Aria's manufacturer got hold of a design that's so similar it could be the same..." GLaDOS trailed off again. Lizbeth could tell that GLaDOS was bothered by the fact that she couldn't work out a problem, and honestly, Lizbeth could see why. She'd lived her whole... Well, life, knowing the answer to every question or problem, or being able to find the answer to it straight away, and now she was faced with a problem without a solid answer, and it made GLaDOS seem almost like a human.

"Well, let's think about it logically-" Lizbeth started.

"What do you think I've been doing? Looking at cat pictures?" GLaDOS snapped.

"Just hear me out." Lizbeth took GLaDOS' death glare to mean she was paying attention. "Okay, where did you find Aria?" Lizbeth asked.

"I just looked down and she was sat there. I don't have a clue where she came from." GLaDOS replied.

"Maybe the surface?" Lizbeth wondered aloud.

"No. Definitely not the surface. Nobody's used that elevator in a long while." GLaDOS told Lizbeth.

"So she's most likely from somewhere in the facility." Lizbeth reasoned, but GLaDOS didn't seem fully convinced.

"Well at the very least, I need to talk to _her_ first." GLaDOS replied.

"_Her_? You mean Aria?" Lizbeth asked. GLaDOS shook her head.

"No. A woman called Emma. Otherwise known as the one person I allowed to live." GLaDOS explained.

"Is she down here as well?" Lizbeth asked.

"No. Unfortunately, in order to see Emma, we have to make a trip to the surface and just hope to the heavens above that the facility doesn't explode while we're gone." GLaDOS stated.

"Okay then. First thing tomorrow we're off to see this 'Emma'. Sound good to you?" Lizbeth replied with a yawn.

"Sounds good." GLaDOS replied. "Now go to bed, I don't want to have to deal with a grumpy human all day, I mean, a regular human's bad enough." Lizbeth ignored the last bit, nodded in reply and headed off to bed.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: Hey! Thanks for reading this chapter! Sorry I've not posted in a while, blame my school for that. I've purposely made GLaDOS less rude in this chapter, because firstly, she's starting to warm to Aria and Lizbeth, and secondly, she's too focused on figuring out the problem. Thanks to likekattheboss for reviewing, I'm glad you liked the last chapter, I hope this one's okay!**_


	6. The Friend

The three were stood by the elevator ready to head to the surface. Lizbeth had managed to convince GLaDOS to let her wear a pair of black jeans instead of her jumpsuit, on the condition that she would immediately change back the moment they arrived back at Aperture.

"We're headed out to the surface in a moment, but first, you two, listen up." GLaDOS started.

"We're all ears." Lizbeth replied as Aria nodded her head.

"Okay. Now both of you, stick together, and don't stray from me. Understand?" The pair nodded. "Oh, and if either of you mess around," Lizbeth put her hands up in a surrender as GLaDOS' amber eyes bore into her, "I might 'accidentally' push you in front of a train or something." Lizbeth noted that GLaDOS seemed to be feeling especially friendly this morning as they set out to the surface.

* * *

><p>Soon the trio had arrived in the city centre. Aria was amazed at the tall buildings and pretty lights, and even Lizbeth looked impressed.<p>

"How do we get to Emma's?" Lizbeth asked.

"Well, we need to take the train from here to over _there_. Then it's only a short walk." GLaDOS explained, pointing out the places on a map. They made their way to the train station, and along the way it became apparent that GLaDOS had not been here in a long while, as she was overwhelmed by how different things were and they often took a wrong turn. Somehow, they managed to get onto the train bound for Emma's area and the doors closed with a solid thud.

"Those are _doors_? They could pass as crushers back home." GLaDOS muttered, setting Lizbeth off in giggles as the train began moving forwards, and quite quickly as well. After a while, GLaDOS was sick of the funny looks that were being thrown her way, completely oblivious to the fact that it was not often a young woman had pure white hair and amber eyes.

"See, I told you that this outfit was as ridiculous as you." GLaDOS turned to Lizbeth.

"Excuse me, that was a horrible thing to say." The woman in front heard her comment and turned around, angrily glaring at GLaDOS.

"Excuse me, but my life is none of your business, thank you very much." GLaDOS replied coolly.

"Well it is if you're going to put your daughter down like that." The woman retorted. GLaDOS just stared at her for a moment.

"Wait, you think she's my-"

"My _mother_ is only joking. Don't mind her." Lizbeth called, both sensing trouble and wanting to mess with GLaDOS for a little while.

"You did _not_ just go there." GLaDOS whispered. Lizbeth's mocking smile confirmed that she did, in fact, go there.

"Even if she was joking, it's still a horrible thing to say." The woman did not want to give up.

"Listen, _woman_. If you're looking for a fight, I'll gladly take you on, but don't come crying to me when two tonnes of solid steel want to say hello to your-"

"GLa- er, _mother_!" Lizbeth yelled.

"I was going to say face." GLaDOS muttered.

"Still, that type of behavior isn't acceptable up here!" Lizbeth muttered back. The train slowed as it reached the station the trio were meant to get off at.

"I'm sorry for my mother, she has quite a short fuse." Lizbeth apologized as the train doors swung open and Lizbeth practically shoved GLaDOS onto the platform before helping Aria across the gap.

The three left the station and GLaDOS led them into a tall apartment block. It was quite pretty, with an attendant at the desk.

"Hello? Can I help you three?" The attendant asked cheerfully. GLaDOS swiftly made her way to the lady, leaving Lizbeth holding Aria's hand in the doorway. Thankfully, the conversation was much less eventfull, and within a minute, GLaDOS was back with the group.

"Floor 15, second room. Same as always." GLaDOS told the group, though the last part was probably for her own benefit rather than for the group. The group got the elevator up to floor 15 and knocked on the door of the second room. After a few moments, the door swung open to reveal a woman who appeared to be in her early to mid fifties. She had brown hair that was just starting to grey tied back into a ponytail and brown eyes, with her face just beginning to show signs of age. For someone who was lounging at home, she looked very smart.

"Emma?" GLaDOS asked as the woman stared at her, however, as soon as GLaDOS spoke, Emma's eyes lit up with recognition.

"Oh my gosh! Caroline? It's been forever! Come in!" Emma replied happily.

"Caroline?" Lizbeth mouthed to GLaDOS, who just shook her head. The trio followed Emma inside and sat down.

"So how've you been doing? Do you still run the facility?" Emma asked.

"Well there's nobody to take me down any more, so I can stay in charge for as long as I like." GLaDOS replied. Emma gave out a gentle laugh.

"Oh, Caroline, it really does seem like only yesterday when you were singing a totally different tune." Emma sighed with a slight smile.

"GLaDOS isn't singing though!" Aria called out, confused, as Emma gave out another gentle laugh.

"It's an expression, sweetie." The older woman explained before turning to GLaDOS again. "So when were you planning on introducing me to your new friends?" GLaDOS rolled her eyes at the word 'friends'.

"Well _that_ one," She motioned towards Lizbeth, "Is the annoyingly arrogant one, and her name is Lizbeth. And _that_ one," She motioned towards Aria, "Is the one I don't hate, Aria." GLaDOS finished her less than flattering descriptions.

"And you're GLaDOS' friend?" Lizbeth asked Emma politely.

"Ah yes. Caroline and I used to work together many years ago. We got along quite well." Emma told the girls with a smile.

"Yes, I liked Emma far more than the other scientists. She was the only one who..." GLaDOS trailed off before swiftly changing the subject. "Would you like me to get you a coffee?" GLaDOS asked.

"If you wouldn't mind, that would be lovely." Emma replied with a smile as she watched GLaDOS leave the room. As soon as GLaDOS had left, Lizbeth spoke up.

"Emma, what happened between you two?"

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Hello! Thank you for reading this chapter! I'm going to try and make the chapters a little bit longer, but I'm probably going to fail with that almost instantly. Thanks to likekattheboss for reviewing again, I really appreciate it! I hope this chapter answered any of your questions, and if it didn't, I'm planning on adding a little bit of backstory in the next chapter, and as for why Aria's an android... Well, you're gonna have to wait and see!_**


	7. The Past

"Caroline! Hey, Caroline! Wake up!" A voice shouted, waking the sleeping lady. The voice belonged to a woman around her early forties, with brown eyes and brown hair, the latter of which was tied into a neat ponytail. Caroline woke up sluggishly.

"Oh, Emma. Morning." Caroline mumbled. Caroline was around her early to mid fifties, had blue-grey eyes and sleek black hair. She was also the new CEO of Aperture Science, as the previous CEO, Cave Johnson passed on the role to her after he died a few months back. Caroline was a strong woman and denied that her boss' death had caused her more than a few shed tears, but everyone could tell that it had hit her like a truck, especially her best friend Emma, who could read the new CEO like a book.

"It's still mid afternoon. You dozed off again." Emma smiled, handing Caroline a coffee, which she took with a smile.

"Thanks," She took a sip. "Are they still working on... _It_?" Caroline asked, almost fearfully. She hated calling GLaDOS by it's name. In fact, she hated GLaDOS in general.

"I'm afraid so." Emma replied. Caroline sighed and took another sip of her coffee.

"When will they get the hint? I don't want to be a part of that hideous machine." Caroline sighed again.

"Oh yeah. That reminds me. They asked to see you down in the main AI chamber." Emma began, "It's nothing really, they just want your thoughts on it, I think. That's what they told me, anyway." Emma elaborated upon seeing Caroline's doubtful expression.

"Okay, fine. I'll meet you down there in five minutes." Caroline replied reluctantly.

"They don't want me, just you." Emma stated with a tone of disappointment.

"Well if they think I'm going near that awful piece of mechanism without you, they're sorely mistaken, and you can tell them that." Caroline told her friend with a slight grin, which Emma soon returned.

"I told them that you'd say that, and I'm afraid you need to go alone. I'll be nearby if you need me." Emma smiled as she left, closing the door behind her, leaving Caroline in the empty office once again. The smile almost instantly dropped from her face as she put her head in her hands.

"Oh Cave, you really did have big dreams and a mouth to match." Caroline whispered to nobody in particular. "But why did you have to put me through this?" She sat there for a few moments in silence, before standing up, smoothing out her favourite beige dress, tying her favourite red scarf around her neck and running her fingers through her hair before leaving.

"Hello? You wanted to see me?" Caroline asked upon entering the main AI chamber. All of the engineers stopped what they were doing and turned to look at the person who had just entered with a smile. It was no understatement to say that everyone at Aperture liked Caroline. The older employees knew her as the voice of reason who was usually able to sweet talk Cave out of doing anything too stupid, and the newer employees knew her as a respectable figure who had kept herself professional enough to take over the company, even though she was obviously falling apart.

"Ah, Caroline! Good to see you! I'm sure Emma told you why we needed you?" One of the older engineers greeted her. She nodded.

"Yeah. Emma said you needed my thoughts on this?" Caroline replied politely.

"That's right. We'd like to hear your thoughts on the design." The engineer asked.

"I, er, well, it looks pretty good at the moment, Why do _I_ have to go inside it?" Caroline looked to the ground. The older engineer looked at her with pity in his eyes.

"Oh, Caroline. It's what Cave wanted." He couldn't bear to meet her eyes again. Caroline simply nodded.

"I understand. Do you know when it'll be finished?" Caroline asked, trying to make the engineer feel less awkward.

"Actually, it's ready when you are. We're hoping to finish the transfer by the end of today, so we'd like to get started now, if that's okay with you." The engineer had recovered his enthusiasm, but Caroline barely took notice as her heart felt as though it were about to fly from her chest.

"R-right n-now?" Caroline stammered, feeling as through the room was spinning around her. She must have shown it, because the engineer grabbed her and helped her to a nearby chair.

"I'm sorry, but if we want it done by today, we'll need to start as soon as possible. Do you need a moment?" The engineer tried to soothe Caroline, who nodded. She pulled her knees up to her chest and the room sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Are you ready?" The engineer finally broke the silence, laying his hand on her shoulder. This was too much for Caroline, who practically shrieked as she pushed his hand away and bolted from the room. She ran straight for her office and locked the door. She sat at her desk, buried her face into her hands and cried softly. Her peace was suddenly shattered by a knock at the door.

"Go away! I don't want this! I never wanted this!" She cried out, not even trying to disguise the fear in her voice.

"Caroline, it's me Emma." The voice came from outside. Caroline let Emma inside and locked the door after her. "Are you okay?" Normally, Caroline would simply brush her skirt off and say that she was fine, followed by a smile, but this time, she shook her head and ran into Emma, who pulled her into a tight hug.

"Emma, I'm scared. I don't want this." Caroline whispered.

"Don't worry, I'll do everything I can to keep you safe." Emma whispered back. "After all, isn't that what best friends do?" Emma grinned. Caroline pulled away from her friend and wiped her tears.

"Thanks. That means a lot. Really." Caroline thanked her friend with a teary smile. Both women jumped as there was a loud thud, thud, thud on the door.

"Hey, Caroline! We need you out here." The engineer from before shouted through the door.

"I don't want to do it. Please, don't make me." Caroline called back. The engineer sighed.

"Listen, Caroline. I didn't want to say this before, but Mr Johnson gave us specific instructions that it has to be you in there, and if you refused, we have full authority to get you there by force." The engineer told Caroline.

"What?" Caroline's heart began thumping again.

"Now I've sent someone to get the master key to open this door, so if you don't come of your own accord, we'll go in there and get you ourselves. Okay?" The engineer finished. Caroline was too stunned to reply.

"Run. Barge out of here and just keep running. I'll try to hold them off. Sound like a plan?" Emma whispered to Caroline, who swallowed hard and nodded. "Ready? GO!" Emma called, and Caroline didn't waste a second.

Adrenaline pumping through her, Caroline ran and ran, until she was truly out of breath. She'd come quite far and was in a remote corridor of the facility, where nobody seemed to come, so she took her chance and sat with her back against the wall, panting. Surely,_surely_, she'd be safe down here. But the engineers didn't miss a beat. It wasn't long until she was surrounded and being dragged back to the AI chamber where she was restrained.

"Caroline! No!" Emma shrieked as she sprinted into the room towards her friend.

"Emma, thank you so much for helping me." Tears began to form in Caroline's eyes.

"Please, you can't do this to her. She doesn't want this." Emma pleaded, trying to free her.

"I'm sorry, but we've come too far to go back now." The engineer said as he pulled a switch. Caroline screamed as the transfer began, and Emma was trying, without much luck, to console her. It only lasted a for a few seconds, though they seemed like minutes, until the room went silent and Caroline's body dropped limply as the giant supercomputer spurred into life.

* * *

><p>About a month or so later, Emma was alone with GLaDOS in GLaDOS' chamber.<p>

"Hey Emma, I've been thinking. I'm sick of the engineers. They keep messing with my data, and every time they do it, I feel as though I'm losing a part of myself." GLaDOS told her old friend.

"So what are you planning on doing?" Emma asked.

"You'll see. All you need to do is get far away from here. Don't turn back and never return. That's all I ask of you." GLaDOS told her friend. Emma nodded sadly.

"I'm sure I'll see you again some day. But for now, goodbye, Caroline." Emma replied sadly.

"I'm GLaDOS now." GLaDOS corrected her, though there was no authority behind her voice.

"You'll always be Caroline to me."

As much as it hurt her, Emma left Aperture for good. By the next day, everyone else was dead.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Hey! Thanks for reading this chapter, I know it was a lot longer than the others, but it's only a backstory so I didn't really want it to drag on over more than one chapter. Thanks again to likekattheboss for reviewing, I'm glad you're liking the story so far! I know this is a more serious chapter, so sorry there aren't any insults or anything here, I'll try to add more in the next chapter for you! Also, the story is only being updated quite frequently, because this is my way of procrastinating, and I procrastinate more than I'd care to admit :P_**


	8. The Dizzy Spell

"So GLaDOS was..." Lizbeth stared at Emma in awe.

"Well now you know. I was a human like you. Happy?" GLaDOS sounded almost hurt as she walked in the room and gave Emma her coffee.

"Ah, thanks, Caroline!" Emma smiled, taking the coffee from the AI. "So you heard the story?" GLaDOS nodded.

"Yes, and now these imbociles know everything." She told her friend, who simply laughed.

"So, Caroline, I forgot to ask before, what brings you here?" Emma asked, still smiling.

"Well as you can see, I've taken on a humanoid appearance. This is a design that has never left Aperture until I came to see you today. But somehow, Aria here has the same body." GLaDOS explained.

"How's that possible?" Emma asked.

"That's what I was wondering, which is why I came to you. You worked closely with the GLaDOS project. You know my hardware inside and out." GLaDOS continued.

"Yes, I still remember it. I could tell your circuits a mile off." Emma smiled proudly at her friend.

"Good. If it's alright with you, would you be able to take a look at Aria's hardware to see if it's similar?" GLaDOS asked. Emma nodded. It was around then when GLaDOS began feeling dizzy again.

"I'd be happy to!" Emma smiled. "Okay sweetie..." Emma pushed what seemed to be a hidden key combination on Aria's back, and the little girl fell lifelessly back into Emma's arms. GLaDOS blinked a few times before confirming that the room had thankfully stopped spinning.

"I won't be long!" Emma called as she left the room.

"You felt strange again, didn't you?" Lizbeth asked quietly as Emma left the room. GLaDOS just looked away.

"Just because I'm having some technological issues, doesn't mean I'm less superior to you." GLaDOS answered, though her voice came out quite empty.

"This is the third time it's happened, isn't it." Lizbeth was starting to get a bit worried. GLaDOS shook her head.

"I think it's happened maybe four or five times. It's probably nothing, a glitch probably just made it into this body, or maybe your horrible design skills made it want to delete itself." GLaDOS didn't want a human to think of her as weak.

"Now I know that's not true, it happened when you were in your main body too." GLaDOS just stared at the floor. Lizbeth sighed and then the room fell into silence for a minute or so.

"Well, it's quite eerie in here, isn't it?" Emma's voice eventually broke the silence. She was carrying Aria, who was now awake. Lizbeth leapt up and went to greet Aria, who leapt from Emma and wrapped her arms around her. Lizbeth whispered something to Emma before carrying Aria back to where GLaDOS was sat.

"Hey Caroline, mind if I speak with you in the kitchen for a second?" Emma asked. GLaDOS nodded and stood up before following her friend into the kitchen.

"Okay. Aria's design practically screams Aperture. With a few minor differences, she's pretty much like a miniature you." Emma explained.

"That's my head engineer!" GLaDOS called enthusiastically, causing Emma to laugh, before sighing. "But it makes no sense how she could be." Emma shrugged.

"Well at least you've narrowed it down to Aperture." Emma tried to be optimistic.

"That's a good point. Once again, you're a great help, Emma." GLaDOS told her friend as she turned around to head back to the others, but Emma grabbed her arm.

"Caroline, Lizbeth said you've been feeling strange every now and then, and as far as I'm aware, robots don't feel strange." Emma's voice was dead serious.

"I'm sure it's nothing." GLaDOS tried to reassure Emma, but she wasn't buying into it.

"I know you don't mean that. You were always smart, even more so now you're a supercomputer, there's no way you'd ever overlook a potentially serious problem in such a carefree manner." Emma insisted.

"You know me too well, Emma." GLaDOS sighed. "I am scared. I don't know what's happening to my systems. It feels like they're messing with me again." Emma's eyes widened at the last part.

"Caroline, when you feel strange..." Emma began.

"I feel dizzy and weak, like when the scientists used to put cores on me." GLaDOS whispered. Emma nodded.

"I'll look into it. In the meantime, don't push yourself too hard." Emma reassured the AI. They both took a deep breath before recomposing themselves and heading back to the others.

"Hey, GLaDOS, it's starting to get late. We'll miss the last train if we don't get going soon." Lizbeth spoke up. GLaDOS nodded in agreement.

"Well thanks for your help, Emma. I'll try to see you more often now I that can, and feel free to drop by every now and then." GLaDOS said to her friend who smiled.

"No problem, I hope to see you all again soon!" Emma grinned as the trio left to head home.

They got to the train quite quickly since they all knew the way this time, and were stood chatting when the doors hissed shut. GLaDOS shook her head.

"I still can't get over those doors." GLaDOS breathed as she looked around the carriage and noticed the person in front of her.

"Lizbeth, is that...?" GLaDOS motioned towards the woman in front of them, and Lizbeth's face confirmed that it was in fact the woman from that morning. The woman had obviously recognised GLaDOS' voice from earlier and flipped round with a disgusted look on her face.

"_You_." The woman practically hissed.

"Yes. Me. Got a problem?" GLaDOS replied monotonously.

"I really don't like you. You know that, right?" The woman growled.

"Great. Then the feeling is totally mutual. Now why are we still talking?" GLaDOS was just tired of the woman at this point.

"Because _someone_ needs to teach you some manners." The woman sounded extremely pleased with herself.

"If you're planning on teaching me _your_ manners, then I think that would backfire horribly." GLaDOS retorted with a slight yawn. This was the final straw for the woman, who let out a frustrated growl as she kicked GLaDOS in the shin, before jumping back in pain, holding her now sore foot having kicked solid metal.

"What _are_ you?" She asked, voice still full of hate, as the train luckily stopped at the trio's station, allowing them to jump off and run for it, until they were finally back at Aperture.

"Ah. Home sweet home." GLaDOS breathed as the surface elevator opened, letting them back into the facility.

Emma was at her computer typing away.

"I wonder..." She thought to herself as she clicked on a link that looked promising and scrolled down.

"Oh my God..."

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: Dun dun duuuun! Sorry to leave it on a cliffhanger like that! You'll find out what Emma saw in a few chapters time! I forgot to mention this before, but the city that Emma lives in is in fact based on London. I know that Aperture is meant to be in America, but I've never been to America before, so I wouldn't be able to accurately write about anywhere over there. That's also why Lizbeth formally referred to GLaDOS as 'mother' on the train a few chapters ago, as I wasn't sure whether to use 'mum' or 'mom'. It's confusing enough writing 'elevator', but 'lift' doesn't sound as cool. Also, likekattheboss, it is not boring writing your name in every chapter at all! You're super awesome taking time out of your day to review it, so why shouldn't I take time out of mine to put you in it? :P Until next time, ~DuckieBubbles**_


	9. The Plan

Morning broke, and Lizbeth awoke to a steady tapping from the next room. Still half asleep, she dragged herself to the source of the sound. It was GLaDOS, pacing the room, and she'd been at it for a while.

"You alright?" Lizbeth asked the pacing AI, who quickly turned round to face the girl at the sound of her voice. She looked oddly elegant for someone who'd been pacing around for a few hours.

"Yes. Perfectly fine. But your hair on the other hand, well, that's a different story all together." GLaDOS motioned at Lizbeth's hair, which was sticking up all over the place. Scowling, Lizbeth flattened it, and it fell loosely around her shoulders as she ran her fingers through it.

"Someone who's perfectly fine doesn't pace around first thing in the morning." Lizbeth shot an icy glare at GLaDOS, who didn't flinch in the slightest. "Emma told you something, didn't she?" Lizbeth realized. GLaDOS stared at the girl and gave a slight nod.

"She told me that Aria was undoubtedly a product of Aperture." GLaDOS told Lizbeth, who looked slightly taken aback.

"Are you sure she didn't mistake it for something else?" Lizbeth asked, confused.

"Yes, Lizbeth. The former head engineer, the one who designed and helped create about 90% of every piece of machinery you see around the facility today, mistook the distinctive Aperture hardware, which she helped create, for something completely different." GLaDOS stated, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Well do \you have any better explanations?" Lizbeth replied bitterly, getting an icy death glare in return.

"If I had an explanation, I wouldn't be pacing around the place first thing in the morning, now would I?" GLaDOS snapped irritably.

"Why can't there be some kind of device that keeps track of things you make here? For a high-tech science company, you've not really thought much through, have you?" Lizbeth muttered.

"If you \must know, we have one of those. It's called the Machinery Production Unit, or MPU, and has been in use since the ASHPoD's first prototype. It says what it is, what it's for, and who created it. It's quite clever, really." GLaDOS told the girl. Lizbeth just stared.

"You know, for a high-intelligence supercomputer, you can be a bit stupid sometimes." Lizbeth commented.

"I'm not sure that \you're in a position to call anyone stupid, to be honest." GLaDOS said with a sarcastic false sweetness in her voice.

"Well, you know that Machine Making Station, or whatever it's called-"

"Machinery Production Unit." GLaDOS interrupted.

"Yeah that, well has is ever occurred to you that it could have a record of Aria's creation?" Lizbeth couldn't believe that the supercomputer hadn't realized all of this.

"It's being around you, you see, it drains my intelligence by the minute." GLaDOS told Lizbeth, who raised her eyebrows with a slight smirk.

"So do you know where it is?" Lizbeth eagerly questioned the AI.

"Of course I do! It's in this section of the facility, a couple floors down from us, so we won't have to open up the 80's section or anything. We'll head off just as soon as Aria's..." GLaDOS stopped suddenly, feeling dizzy again. "Awake." She finished weakly, before blacking out and crashing to the floor.

GLaDOS was in a familiar state. It was the same feeling as when the scientists used to shut her off after her 'outbursts'. It was a feeling of existance and nothing else. Almost like a dream. Seconds, minutes, hours, days and even years all felt the same in this state, so she could be out for a matter of seconds or decades and not know the difference. But eventually, like always, reality took over and Aperture Science blurred back into view.

"How long was I out?" GLaDOS immediately asked upon seeing Lizbeth's worried face.

"Less than half a minute, I think, but you scared me! What happened?" GLaDOS was shocked at how worried the girl actually was.

"I don't know, I just felt strange again." GLaDOS muttered, not able to meet Lizbeth's eyes.

"They're getting worse, aren't they?" Lizbeth replied in a small voice. GLaDOS simply nodded. The two stood in silence for a few moments, until Lizbeth took a deep breath and clapped her hands together.

"Well, I'm going to see if Aria's awake yet. That MPU isn't going to check itself." Lizbeth winked at GLaDOS.

"Okay then, let me know when you're ready." GLaDOS smiled at the girl, who stared at the AI with utter shock.

"Y-you... GLaDOS, you \smiled at me?" Lizbeth yelled in an exaggerated manner.

"What? Do you not like it when I smile, because it would be a lot easier to openly despise you, if you'd prefer." GLaDOS stated matter-of-factly.

"No, it's fine, you suit a smile, anyway." Lizbeth grinned at a taken aback GLaDOS before running off down the corridor leading to Aria's room to see if the little girl was awake.

* * *

><p>A minute or so later, Lizbeth walked back in, carrying Aria on her hip.<p>

"Okay, now we're all here, we're headed in the complete opposite direction of last time and going into the depths of the facility." GLaDOS stated to the group.

"Liz said that we're going to find a Machiney Duck-shin Unit." Aria stated proudly, trying to hide the fact that she obviously messed up her words.

"It's called the Machinery Production Unit. We're not finding a production line that creates mechanical duck shins." GLaDOS told the little girl, who nodded in understanding. Lizbeth giggled lightly as she fixed her hair back into her usual messy bun.

"So now we all know what we're actually doing down there, shall we head off?" The older girl chimed with a smile.

"Yeah!" Aria called in her usual enthusiastic manner as GLaDOS nodded in agreement.

"Let's go then. It's this way." GLaDOS began leading the group down a long corridor as they began their latest adventure.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: Ahh! Thanks for reading this chapter! Sorry it took so long, I've been distracted, and totally not by the new **_**_Pokémon games that just came out. And by that I mean I've been very much distracted by the new Pokémon games that just came out. Anyway, thank you to lulubot3000 for reviewing, that really means a lot! I'd let you know exactly when I update, but honestly, it's just whenever a chapter's finished, and that usually happens when I'm procrastinating, like right now, actually ^.^;;_**


	10. The Descent

"It's really dark down here..." Aria whispered in a shaking voice as the trio were making their way down an unlit corridor.

"Yes, so don't separate from Lizbeth. And Lizbeth, don't wander off." GLaDOS told the group with authority. The two nodded, though the AI didn't see it due to the dark.

"How much further is it?" Lizbeth asked.

"You sound like a six year old." GLaDOS replied monotonously.

"Well considering the nearest six year old is a computer based on your own system, thanks for the compliment." Lizbeth chimed with a slight smirk.

"Oh really? Aria, define photosynthesis." GLaDOS sighed.

"What does 'define' mean?" The little girl was confused.

"And there we go." GLaDOS coolly stated, and in reply received an icy glare from Lizbeth that the dark swallowed whole. The three continued walking into the black until GLaDOS suddenly stopped and held her arm out to halt the others.

"Is this it?" Lizbeth asked, slightly excited.

"Not quite. There's a staircase here, so I thought that this might help." GLaDOS explained. Suddenly, GLaDOS' eyes illuminated like small headlights, giving two large beams of white light that lit the surrounding area, the amber colour glowing brightly.

"Wow, GLaDOS! That's so cool!" Aria was in awe.

"And why did you not do this sooner?" Lizbeth raised an eyebrow.

"What, and ruin the adventure?" GLaDOS mocked with a smirk.

"You can be a handful sometimes, you do know that right?" Lizbeth told the AI, trying to hide her amused grin as she stalked off down the staircase, GLaDOS and Aria slightly further behind.

"Wait for me!" Aria chimed as she ran to catch up with the older girl. However, she didn't look where she was going, so she didn't see where rust had corroded a hole in the catwalk and fell through it with an ear-piercing scream. Lizbeth acted fast and managed to grab the little girl's hand.

"GLaDOS! Help me pull her up!" Lizbeth practically shrieked at the AI as she tried to both pull the little girl up and avoid falling through the hole herself, and as a result could only hold the girl with one hand. Aria's eyes were wide with fear as she held onto Lizbeth as tight as she could, afraid of the fifty foot drop into pure acid that would meet her if even a single finger slipped.

"GLaDOS, please help me!" Aria managed to call weakly. GLaDOS has heard the cries from further back and came running. Neither of the pair could hold on for much longer and soon they were only just holding on by their fingertips.

"Aria, don't you dare let go!" Lizbeth called, but almost as if by cruel fate, the inevitable happened and Aria's hand slipped. Horror crossed the child's face for a split second as she realized what had happened, but before she could even fall a foot, an icy hand wrapped around her wrist. Aria looked up in surprise and saw that it was GLaDOS who'd grabbed her, and with incredible force, pulled her up and back onto the catwalk.

"Don't _ever_ scare us like that again." GLaDOS whispered. Aria wrapped her arms around the older AI's waist and burrowed her face into her clothes. GLaDOS didn't protest, in fact, she returned the hug for a few seconds before standing up and helping Aria up with her.

"If we're all okay, let's continue." GLaDOS stated, receiving a relieved nod from Lizbeth and a weak smile from Aria.

Everyone was quite quiet for a while as they made their way down the spiraling staircase, GLaDOS leading the way with her lights, until Aria broke the silence.

"I can't wait until I grow up." She randomly stated.

"How come?" Lizbeth was curious as to what caused this sudden outburst.

"Because when I grow up, I can wear pretty clothes like Emma, do my hair all nice like Lizbeth, and be elegant like GLaDOS." Aria continued in an aloof voice.

"I'm sure you will." Lizbeth assured the little girl with a smile before turning to GLaDOS with a look that asked if that was even possible. GLaDOS got the message and nodded.

"I'll build the body myself if I have to." GLaDOS whispered back to the older girl who nodded.

"So GLaDOS," Lizbeth changed the subject in an upbeat voice, "How much further is it now?" Lizbeth asked with a smile.

"Not much longer now, and you still sound like a six year old." the AI replied curtly before she tripped over her feet as her vision was suddenly clouded with dizziness once again. She hit the catwalk with a loud bang of metal on metal, and the lights flickered then died.

"GLaDOS! Are you okay?" Lizbeth called to the sprawled out AI who lay motionless and silent for a few seconds, before she suddenly stirred.

"Yeah..." Came the weak, whispered reply.

"What happened?" Lizbeth asked.

"I just tripped, don't worry about it." GLaDOS's voice was it's usual strong self as she stood up and illuminated the area once again, revealing Lizbeth's face that all too clearly said that she didn't believe that one bit. Brushing herself off, GLaDOS continued down a few steps where they were met with the bottom of the staircase and a short, L shaped corridor. Any earlier doubts were washed away by excitement as the other two followed closely as GLaDOS tapped in a code to allow the mechanical door to hiss and slide open.

"Girls, Welcome to the Machinery Production-" GLaDOS stopped as she sensed the three red lasers that lit up on her back one by one. "Run." The girls managed to duck round the corner just in time to see a couple dozen bullets hit the wall that they'd just been stood in front of.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Hey! Thanks for reading this chapter! I realized that I've been leaving Aria out a bit, so I thought I'd centre this chapter around her, hope you enjoyed! Thanks to likekattheboss for reviewing, and yes, I have heard of PewDiePie, most of the internet has probably heard of him by now, but I don't really watch his videos, I just really, really, really love ducks. Also thanks to lulubot3000 for reviewing, I'm really glad you like the story! ~Duckie_**


	11. The Turrets

"What the _hell_ are they?" Lizbeth shrieked breathlessly, turning to stare at GLaDOS.

"Turrets. They're white, spherical things filled with bullets. Well, actually, that'll be you if you don't stay put. I forgot they were down here, to be honest. It doesn't matter though, I'm still in charge, even down here, I'll just disengage them." GLaDOS explained calmly.

"Well if you're the one in charge here, why were they trying to shoot you?" Lizbeth asked. GLaDOS was too busy trying to disengage the turrets to answer. After about half a minute, she looked back up at Lizbeth.

"I'm guessing the reason to that also has to do with why I can't access the turrets' data." GLaDOS said calmly, though Lizbeth could see that she was panicking slightly.

"So you're saying you can't turn off the things that are trying their damn hardest to kill us?" Lizbeth was starting to get slightly angry.

"I have no idea why. I can't access the Aerial Faith Plates or deadly lasers either." GLaDOS was panicking more now as she tried each function.

"Did you remember to put them into this body?" Lizbeth wondered aloud.

"Of course I did! It's not like a pick and mix adding functions, you know. It's all of them or none, and I can see them all, it just won't let me access some of them." GLaDOS snapped. The two stood there for a few seconds exchanging looks of pure poison.

"Well what are we going to do? We didn't come down here to give up at the last challenge, did we? GLaDOS, is there any other way to get past the turrets?" GLaDOS thought for a second.

"Well it's extremely dangerous..." GLaDOS began before trailing off, but as Lizbeth's poisonous look turned to hope, she continued. "But we could attack them." She finished, looking Lizbeth dead in the eyes. The older girl swallowed hard before returning her trademark smirk and nodding.

"What's your plan?" She replied.

"Well since we don't have any testing apparatus, it's going to be hard, but not impossible. You target the one on the right. Just keep moving side to side and get behind it. I'll do the same with the one on the left. Aria, you stay here." GLaDOS didn't want the little one, who was quite clumsy on a good day, to get killed. Even for the two androids, this could be dangerous, because if their body got too damaged, their systems would shut down until the body got repaired, and in GLaDOS' case, the only one besides Emma who could actually repair the bodies, that essential repair would never come. And if it damaged anything inside the body? Well, GLaDOS didn't even want to imagine that.

"Okay. On three?" Lizbeth had a determined expression on her face as they prepared to bolt around the corner. GLaDOS nodded with equal determination.

"Three." Aria called, hoping for her friends' safe returns.

"Two." GLaDOS called with authority in her voice. There was no turning back now.

"One." Lizbeth's voice was shaking, she was nervous yet ready to go.

"GO!" The runners screamed together as they set of sprinting. Neither of them missed a beat as they bolted side to side, ducking and jumping where appropriate to dodge bullets. Lizbeth dodged to the right as she felt the bullet fly past her neck, a narrow escape, then rolled across the ground as a bullet threatened to pierce her chest, another close call. Since the corridor was only small, the pair got the the turrets quite fast, both being able to match each other's speed. As Lizbeth was about to leap over her turret, GLaDOS having leapt over her one mere seconds ago, the turret readied itself to shoot another round of bullets. It struck Lizbeth that at this range, she wouldn't have time to dodge, so before she could even think about what she was doing, she slid across the floor, feet towards the turret, and knocked it flying with a good kick. She stood up and ran to GLaDOS behind the two remaining turrets.

"What part of 'get behind it' confused you?" GLaDOS asked the older girl.

"Good job to you too, glad you're still alive." Lizbeth replied sarcastically. GLaDOS sighed.

"Well that was a pretty solid kick at the end there." That was as close to a compliment you could get from the AI. "Now all we have to do is get rid of the other turrets." GLaDOS demonstrated by lifting up the turret she'd jumped over and throwing it a short distance. It open fired, thankfully missing all three of the group, then died. Lizbeth did the same with the other one.

"Aria, It's safe now!" Lizbeth called to the little girl who came running and hugged Lizbeth tightly.

"I'm glad you're both okay!" Aria was relieved at their safety.

"Okay, so now we can get through just fine, let's go." GLaDOS went through the door first, checking that it was safe to venture through, which it was. The three entered the room and began heading for the large computer monitor in the middle of the room.

"Now _this_ is the Machinery Production Unit. It used to be where they made the machines, hence it's name, but since everything is usually mass produced upstairs nowadays, all this does is keep a record of everything made in the facility." GLaDOS explained.

"So it should have a record of Aria..." Lizbeth whispered. GLaDOS nodded.

"Exactly." The group walked over to the monitor and GLaDOS began scrolling through the extensive list, Lizbeth reading everything over her shoulder.

"Damn, that's a lot of active turrets." The older girl breathed as she saw the 'x8275' next to the picture of the turret that was listed as active. The number of inactive turrets was around double that, to Lizbeth's relief.

"That's three less than five minutes ago." GLaDOS reminded her. They scrolled near the bottom, where they found GLaDOS' android body listed as corrupted.

"GLaDOS, why are you listed as corrupted?" Lizbeth asked, concerned. "You feel strange again, don't you?" She added when GLaDOS didn't reply, and was met with a nod.

"Since we came in here." GLaDOS replied quietly.

"You go and rest. I'll check for Aria here, and as soon as we get back upstairs, we're asking Emma for help, okay?" Lizbeth's voice was stern, and GLaDOS felt too weak to argue back. Instead she nodded and sat down on the floor. Lizbeth scrolled up and down for about five minutes, without finding anything.

"There's nothing. Aria, do you remember anything about where you came from? Anything at all?" Lizbeth pleaded with the girl who shook her head before she froze. Her eyes widened and she gave a slight nod.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Hey! Sorry to leave it on such a cliffhanger, but I didn't want to give away the surprise just yet :P_**

**_Thanks to CheezyPortalFan for reviewing and pointing out some problems, I hope this chapter cleared some things up, the next chapter should explain why she can't access things, and if not the next one, then definitely the one after._**

**_Also thanks to likekattheboss for reviewing, and yes, ducks are amazing creatures, hence why I have the word duck in my username. :3_**

**_Lastly, thanks to lulubot3000 for reviewing, it really means a lot to me that you like the story! I try to upload either every day or every other day, unless I'm super busy. Until next time, ~Duckie :)_**


	12. The Goodbye

"Aria, are you saying that you remember something?" Lizbeth was surprised. Aria nodded again.

"What do you remember?" Lizbeth pressed on. Aria hesitated before speaking.

"I'm not on the system because... I'm not meant to exist." she replied with a whisper.

"What do you mean? You're here, aren't you? That should mean you _are_ meant to exist, right?" Lizbeth was confused. Aria shook her head with a sad smile.

"No. Even the one who created me doesn't know that they did." Aria looked to the floor. Lizbeth shook her head.

"I'm sure that's not true at all." Lizbeth went over to reassure the child, but Aria shrugged her off and went over to GLaDOS, who was sat weakly against the wall.

"GLaDOS. I'm sorry." Aria sounded as if she was about to cry. GLaDOS looked up at her.

"What for? Did you break something?" GLaDOS replied dizzily.

"No. I'm sorry for causing you so much pain. It's all my fault!" Aria burst into tears as she knealt in front of the AI.

"Aria, you've done nothing wrong. You didn't cause my dizziness." GLaDOS didn't feel like dealing with a crying child in her weakened state. Aria wiped away her tears with a sniffle.

"I did. GLaDOS, I'm a virus." Aria whispered.

"Don't be ridic-" GLaDOS began before the little girl interrupted.

"GLaDOS! I remember everything now! That's why you've been feeling weak! I've been destroying your system from the inside out and I didn't even realize! I'm a part of you, that's why I'm not on record! If you don't believe me, have a look for yourself!" Aria shouted at GLaDOS, who looked taken aback. She checked her files, and sure enough, Aria's data was stored right there. GLaDOS began to feel slightly light-headed.

"That doesn't prove that you're a virus." GLaDOS stubbornly told the little girl.

"GLaDOS. I know what I am and I know what I'll do to you if I stay here. If my existence is hurting you, I don't want to exist at all, so please, you have to delete me. "Aria had an authority behind her pleading voice that GLaDOS hadn't heard from that little girl before.

"Aria..." Lizbeth stared at the little girl.

"No. Aria, I will _not_ delete you." GLaDOS replied sternly.

"Listen to me. If I stay in your system, you'll _die_. If you die, I will too. I've been doomed from the start, so whether you decide to delete me or not I'll die, and I'd rather die knowing that you're alive and well!" Aria yelled, though she couldn't make eye contact with either girls. GLaDOS was weakening with every passing minute.

"I won't delete you. You taught me what friendship is. If you go, I'm not sure I can trust anyone again." GLaDOS told the girl weakly.

"You were the one that created me. I'm sure you'll be able to get rid of me just as easily." Aria gave another weak smile.

"I... Created you?" GLaDOS couldn't believe this statement either. Aria nodded.

"You were alone for so long that your subconscious desire to be around people accidentally created a virus. I was that virus." Aria explained. GLaDOS shook her head.

"Well now I know that I created you, I'm _definitely_ not deleting you!" GLaDOS yelled to the little girl, who sighed, before giving yet another sad smile.

"If you won't delete me, I will." She said, standing up straight.

"What?" Both Lizbeth and GLaDOS wondered in unison, nether wanting the little girl to leave.

"I've corrupted GLaDOS enough that I can access her data." Aria told the pair. GLaDOS went to open her files and found she could no longer access them, which could only mean that Aria was telling the truth. Aria opened up her own files and for a few minutes just played around with them. Eventually, she looked up at the pair.

"Delete." She whispered with a smile, tears forming in her eyes. As soon as she'd pressed the button, her body began disappearing, bit by bit. Lizbeth leapt forwards, holding the child tightly, wishing that she never had to let go.

"Liz, thank you. You were like a big sister to me. Please, never forget me." Aria did what her eyes had been threatening to do and began to cry.

"I won't." Lizbeth whispered, also beginning to tear up. GLaDOS ran over to the disappearing girl and grabbed her hand. The tips of her fingers had already gone.

"GLaDOS. I'm sorry. I hope you'll remember me as just Aria, not as the monster I really am." Aria pleaded.

"Don't worry. There's no monster in you for me to remember, besides when you ripped up my beautiful design." As an afterthought, GLaDOS tried to lighten the mood with a joke, and Aria gave out a teary laugh.

"I think I did you a favour there." Aria joked back. It was Lizbeth's turn to giggle tearily.

"We'll never forget you. Ever." Lizbeth assured the little girl, who smiled with thanks.

"Thank you. Both of you. Thank you so much." Aria told the pair as the last of her disappeared. Lizbeth fell to her knees in tears. GLaDOS' head cleared and she felt her functions return to normal.

"She's really gone, isn't she?" Lizbeth asked in an empty voice. GLaDOS nodded.

The two made their way back up to the main AI chamber. Nether of them said a word the whole way back, though Lizbeth's teary eyes threatened to spill over when they passed the hole that Aria fell through on the way down. When they got back to the chamber, Lizbeth broke the silence.

"Is everything back to normal with you?" She asked. GLaDOS checked.

"Yeah. You okay?" GLaDOS replied.

"I will be." Lizbeth smiled. "You've got a missed call by the way." GLaDOS looked to see her phone, an extremely old one that she'd scavenged from the 80's section, had a red flashing light that signified a voice mail. GLaDOS pressed the button and Emma's voice broke into the air.

"GLaDOS. I looked into your problem, and the little girl who was with you, she's a virus, an extremely dangerous one at that. You need to delete her before she-" GLaDOS cut the voicemail short before dialling Emma's number. After a few rings, she picked up.

"Hello, Emma?" GLaDOS spoke down the phone.

"Caroline! Did you get the voicemail I sent you?" Emma's voice sounded urgent.

"Yes, just now." GLaDOS replied.

"And?" Emma asked.

"She's already gone."

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Two chapters in one day? Why not! Anyway, thanks for reading! Trust me, it was hard 'killing off' Aria, I contemplated not doing it for a while. Also, this isn't the end of the story, I've still got a bit more to write._**

**_Thanks lulubot3000 for reviewing, I hope you like the second update of the day!_**

**_Also thanks to likekattheboss for reviewing, I hope the suspense was worth it!_**

**_Finally, thanks to CheezyPortalFan for reviewing, I hope this chapter cleared things up, but if not:_**

**_1. Every virus works differently, Aria's making GLaDOS tired._**  
><strong><em>2. The MPU is the 'master computer' of sorts, so it has the data from individual production lines.<em>**  
><strong><em>3. Since GLaDOS is corrupted, her functions wouldn't be working as well, and she did still beat Lizbeth to the turrets.<em>**  
><strong><em>4. She probably does use a cold fusion or quantum generator, to be honest.<em>**  
><strong><em>5. She can't shoot lasers from her eyes because <em>****_I'd get jealous_****_ that would make her too over powered._**  
><strong><em>6. The scientists also thought that GLaDOS + Neurotoxin was a good idea.<em>**  
><strong><em>7. She let Lizbeth boss her around because she was sick, and nobody wants to argue when they're sick.<em>**


	13. The New Test

A week had passed since Aria had gone. Lizbeth was drawing something at the side of the room as GLaDOS was building test chambers again. Upon finishing off her latest one, she sat back and sighed.

"Hey, Lizbeth. Do you want to build a test chamber?" The AI called across the room. Lizbeth put down her drawing and went over to GLaDOS' computer, which was another thing scavenged from the ruins of the older section. After about five minutes, Lizbeth had completed the blueprints. GLaDOS couldn't believe what she was looking at.

"Lizbeth..." She began. The girl looked up. "This is the \worst test chamber I've ever seen." It was a simple box room, with a few portal-friendly surfaces on every wall, where you pushed a button to release a cube... That landed on the button. You didn't even have to lift the cube once.

"\Fine then. Give me a minute." Lizbeth gave GLaDOS a dirty look as she tweaked the chamber slightly. "How's this?" GLaDOS resisted every urge to facepalm. All the girl had done was add a deadly moat across the room, but the rest of the chamber remained unchanged.

"How is this any better?" GLaDOS asked Lizbeth, who folded her arms across her chest. GLaDOS swiftly moved the blueprints into a folder labelled 'Test Chamber Disasters', bringing the total number of chambers in the folder to one.

"Fine then. Why don't you try making a piece of testing \apperatus instead." GLaDOS sighed. Lizbeth got to work immediately, finishing the design in about two minutes. GLaDOS looked over and gave an exasperated sigh. Lizbeth had got the cube's design and changed the colour scheme from blue to pink. She had also changed the Aperture logos on the sides to hearts. GLaDOS went to dispose of that blueprint as well, but Lizbeth pushed her, causing her hand to slip, sending the design to manufacturing instead.

"Oh you little..." GLaDOS began angrily as she stood up, causing Lizbeth to skip back a few steps. The AI lashed out with her hand, narrowly missing Lizbeth's face. Lizbeth laughed as she dodged.

"Can't catch me!" Lizbeth called childishly. GLaDOS rolled her eyes with a sigh.

"You know where else I can't catch you? The incinerator. Try hiding there." GLaDOS turned her back on the girl and went to sit down. Lizbeth giggled and sat back down with her drawing. After a few minutes of sketching, she looked up at the AI.

"Hey GLaDOS, what do you actually do all day?" Lizbeth asked out of curiosity.

"Build test chambers, use them, shake out the skeletons, then repeat." GLaDOS replied casually.

"You've been doing an awful lot of the first one this week. How come no actual testing goes on?" Lizbeth asked.

"Because my test subject is sat here drawing." GLaDOS told her with a slight smirk. Lizbeth crumpled her drawing up into a ball and threw it at the AI.

"Alright then. I'm bored anyway. I could do with a challenge." Lizbeth said as she walked towards the elevator down to the testing tracks. She stepped in and the doors closed.

"Well, now that you mention it, I've got a new test, just for you. But I'm warning you, it's hard." GLaDOS told the girl, who looked at her with determination in her eyes.

"Didn't I tell you that I'm up for a challenge?" Lizbeth grinned. GLaDOS nodded.

"This challenge is to go out and live your own life." Lizbeth was confused. Did she hear that right? "My tests are dangerous. One wrong step and it could be game over. Now I'm not saying that I like you, I'm just saying that I'd rather you didn't die. That, and I can't take another moment with you."

"Wait, are you..." Lizbeth stared at GLaDOS.

"Yes. I'm letting you go." GLaDOS told the girl. Shocked, Lizbeth placed her hands on the elevator glass.

"Challenge accepted." Lizbeth replied with a determined spark in her eye, though her voice was soft. The elevator began moving upwards.

"Don't come back." GLaDOS tried to sound bored. Lizbeth stuck her tongue out and made a peace sign at GLaDOS until she finally rose out of sight.

"Good luck." GLaDOS whispered softly after she'd long gone. She looked at her feet and saw the crumpled up drawing lay there. She picked it up and opened it, revealing it to be a beautiful sketch of Aria with a huge smile across her face.

GLaDOS swung round a few times, glad to be back into her old body. After a few minutes of enjoying being safely attached onto the ceiling, GLaDOS looked at her android body, which was lay, almost peacefully, on the floor. She noticed that it wasn't in the same perfect condition it was in when she'd entered it. The boots were scuffed, the hair was sticking up all over the place, the shirt had long been untucked from the skirt, both of which were covered in dirt and rust, and there were many scratches across the metallic skin, yet there it lay, still as elegant as ever, even with all of the faults. Sighing, GLaDOS lifted the body with one of her claws and hid it behind a panel where nobody would ever find it. After checking that everything in the facility was still alright, she awakened the next test subject.

"Hello and, again, welcome to the Aperture Science computer-aided enrichment centre." GLaDOS recited the same thing she said to all test subjects before they began testing. The portal opened and the test subject, after placing the clipboard in the toilet, entered the first test chamber. That's when GLaDOS got a good look at the girl. She had black hair tied back into a ponytail and alert blue eyes that seemed to take in everything. Everything about this girl reminded GLaDOS of Lizbeth, and that made GLaDOS hate the girl. The test subject named Chell.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Hey! Thanks for reading this chapter! At first this one was just going to be a light chapter with just Lizbeth and GLaDOS messing around, but I got stuck, so I wrote this a chapter earlier than planned. Lizbeth's not gone for good, she's going to be in a few more chapters, but I'm going to focus on Chell and GLaDOS for a bit._**

**_Thanks to CheezyPortalFan for reviewing, your reviews are always really helpful! Getting to Emma's within a time frame would have made for a pretty good arc, but I already have a plan for the finale, whenever that may come. Also, if you've noticed the story summary says that it's based off of Karakuri Odette, which is a manga about an android girl called Odette, that's because there's a short side chapter at the end of volume one where she gets a virus, which takes the form of a young boy called Hisataro. The difference between him and Aria is that Hisataro grows older the more he corrupts Odette, and only Odette can see him. This explains why Hisataro dissolves into pixels when he dies, because doesn't physically exist, but since it was that which inspired this story to be written in the first place, I didn't really want to change it._**

**_Also thanks to lulubot3000 for reviewing! GLaD you like the story!_**


	14. The Defeat

The more she watched Chell test, the more GLaDOS realized how different she was from Lizbeth. For a start, Chell's eyes were more of a grey-blue than Lizbeth's brilliant sapphire ones, Chell also had tan skin, giving her a healthy glow in contrast to Lizbeth's porcelin skin, which made her seem frail, which couldn't have been further from the truth. But what stood out the most to GLaDOS was how she went about her tests. While Lizbeth had a feminine elegance, a constant smirk and a way with words, Chell was strong and silent, her face showing nothing but concentration. It was respectable, in a way.

"Too bad I'll have to kill her at the end." GLaDOS muttered to herself. Chell was extremely good at testing, she cleared one after another without taking a break, but GLaDOS could tell that Chell's energy was fuelled with hatred towards the AI, a hatred that increased with every new obstacle. Finally, Chell exited the final chamber and began the ride to her doom. _Only five more seconds until she's escorted from the Being Alive Club,_ GLaDOS thought. _5, 4, 3, 2, wait... What?_

"What are you doing?" GLaDOS asked the test subject. The girl had somehow managed to keep a calm mind and escape the trap without being baked and did not reply as she began her newest, unplanned and most dangerous test of all, and it wasn't long until GLaDOS lost sight of her. That didn't mean she'd lost her, no, GLaDOS knew exactly where Chell was headed, and it meant that she might be expecting a visitor in a little while. She already had traps along the way, as a couple of test subjects had escaped in the past. The traps usually took care of them, as only one had ever made it to GLaDOS' chamber. It was a remarkable feat, and GLaDOS was still impressed by it five seconds later as she was scraping his remains off of her chamber wall.

Just over half an hour later, to GLaDOS' surprise, Chell had managed to bypass all of the traps and was making her way down the corridor towards GLaDOS' room. GLaDOS turned to face the door in anticipation as Chell's footsteps became steadily more audible until the door opened with a hiss.

"Well you found me. Congratulations." GLaDOS sarcastically remarked to Chell. A difference between Lizbeth and Chell was drawn right there, as Chell approached the supercomputer without speaking a word, whereas Lizbeth would have made a sarcastic remark at this point. GLaDOS had gone past admiring the test subject's guts, and decided she'd settle with neurotoxin instead. As she was counting down to the Chell's 'surprise', she got a surprise herself as something dropped from her. Chell went over to the object and picked it up. GLaDOS recognised it from somewhere, but it wasn't until the object met it's fiery doom that she realized what exactly it was. It was her morality core. It was sort of GLaDOS' conscience, but all it did was fill GLaDOS' mind with kind thoughts that she promptly ignored. It was a shame, there was one scientist who told the others that the conscience could always be ignored, they didn't listen to him, and he was the only one smart enough to survive. Now it was gone though, she could kill this girl without a little voice holding her back.

GLaDOS figured that Chell was most likely one of the captured children from the first, and last, annual 'Bring Your Daughter to Work Day', as GLaDOS found they could stand being in a room filled with neurotoxin for a while longer than other test subjects, and this girl was holding up pretty well. She was fighting a losing battle though, because even though she seemed capable of surviving, the neurotoxin would kill her before long. There was no way she was leaving this room ali- GLaDOS' thoughts were cut short with a bang as a bullet collided with her, knocking another core off of her. Chell picked up the core and tossed it into the incinerator, leaving GLaDOS without her curiosity, replacing it with the burning desire to murder the lunatic. Two more bullets flew her way, but GLaDOS managed to swing enough to dodge them. However, the third one hit home and knocked another core off. GLaDOS didn't feel much difference this time, but the space that the core had inhabited was overtaken by anger once more, leaving GLaDOS feeling nothing but white hot rage towards this human, the human who reminded her of her friend, the human she needed to kill. Chell's determination grew with GLaDOS' anger so she could continue to dodge her relentless attacks. There was another bang as the third core detatched from the supercomputer. All at once, GLaDOS' anger disappeared, leaving her feeling... Nothing. GLaDOS felt her system go crazy as it tried to make up for the important data that was lost, but all it suceeded in doing was overheating and breaking GLaDOS even more as her fans attempted to keep up. Soon, her fans were moving so fast they created a vaccum that pulled GLaDOS, Chell and the rest of the room up through the ceiling with a crash. That was when everything went black.

GLaDOS was forced to watch her defeat over and over, Chell's determined face now permanently etched into her memory, just as Aria's tears and Lizbeth's smirk were. How long had passed, she didn't know, maybe days, maybe years. Maybe Chell had gotten out somehow and was sending her children off to school, maybe Lizbeth was sat telling her grandchildren about her adventure in Aperture Science, GLaDOS had no way of knowing. _That's strange,_ she thought, _the video's stopped_. GLaDOS was confused as the black returned. Gradually, she felt her system coming back online. Finally, she regained movement and sight. She pulled herself up from the floor and looked around. The first thing she noticed was that the facility was in complete ruin. The second thing she noticed was her murderer stood before her.

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: Hey! Sorry for my accidental break from writing and that this chapter feels rushed, I've been stuck for ideas. I didn't want big points of the story to happen in consecutive chapters, but it turned out like that, so I hope it's okay!**_

_**Thanks to Emily Tristan, likekattheboss and lulubot3000 for reviewing!**_

_**Also thanks to CheezyPortalFan, and yes, it is a prequel, sorry if it was a bit vague, but it means I get to write Wheatley, and that I am excited for!**_

**_~Duckie_**


	15. The Return

This wasn't right. No. How could it be? She only left two months ago, surely it was a joke!

"C-come on, GLaDOS, you're not fooling anybody!" She couldn't hide the uncertainty in her voice as her heart began beating faster. GLaDOS would pull herself back up to her magnificent height and laugh at the look on her face at any moment now... Wouldn't she? Making her way over to the AI's lifeless face, she noticed how the facility looked a bit messier than it usually was. There was no light in GLaDOS' optic, and the subtle hum that usually filled the room if you listened carefully enough was eerily absent. That's when it clicked. This was not a joke. The girl knelt beside the AI as her piercing blue eyes filled with tears.

"GLaDOS, it's me, Lizbeth, please, wake up. " She whispered, placing her hand on the once grand supercomputer.

Lizbeth sat staring at GLaDOS, refusing to believe that she'd been defeated. She dried her eyes and stood up as a man came sprinting into the room with a companion cube strung around his back.

"Who are you?" He asked urgently.

"Lizbeth, who are you?" She replied, just as shocked as he was to see another living, breathing human in Aperture.

"I'm Doug Rattmann, what are you doing here?" He asked.

"I came back to visit-" Lizbeth began.

"You came \back to Aperture Science? Are you mad?" Rattmann couldn't believe his ears.

"What are you on about?" Lizbeth raised an eyebrow at the man.

"This place ruins everything! I lost my closest friends down here!" The man's face darkened as he reacalled the memory.

"You... Lost your friends here?" Lizbeth asked with sympathy in her voice.

"Yes. Take a look." The man handed Lizbeth a worn picture of two ladies and a man, all of which looked to be around their late twenties, were smiling from ear to ear. The man had ruffled black hair and looked to be a little younger than the others, one lady, who looked to be the oldest woman, had long black hair tossed over one shoulder and a red scarf tied around her neck, and the last lady, who looked slightly familiar, had brown hair tied in a neat, loose ponytail.

"Who are these people?" Lizbeth was mesmerized by the picture.

"This is when Aperture was fairly new and in it's golden days. The man is me. The lady with the brown hair is a woman named Emma. As for the lady with the black hair, she was forced into a computer and ended up killing Emma and nearly me. She's GLaDOS." The man explained.

"Caroline..." Lizbeth whispered, remembering what she had learned from Emma.

"How did you know?" Rattmann was shocked that the young girl knew her name.

"Emma told me." Lizbeth explained with a smile.

"Emma? As in... \that Emma? She's been dead for years!" Rattmann leant in closer to Lizbeth, making her feel a tiny bit uncomfortable.

"No, she lives in the city, the same place she's always lived, according to GLaDOS." Lizbeth told the man. Rattmann pulled back, lost for words.

"Emma is..." Rattmann stared at the girl.

"\Go to her." Lizbeth grinned as Rattmann nodded and headed towards the exit. Before he got there, he stopped and spoke without turning round.

"Caroline... I mean, GLaDOS will be like that for a while. A long while. If you want to meet with her again, I'd suggest going into Relaxation Vault 463, it's one of the two ones that still have power. When you wake up, GLaDOS should be awake again. If not," He turned and looked Lizbeth in the eyes, "Leave this place." Lizbeth nodded reluctantly.

"You and Emma are very much alike, you know." She told him after a few moments of silence.

"How so?" Rattmann looked at Lizbeth with curiosity.

"You both call her Caroline." Lizbeth smiled at the man, who stared back.

"Old habits die hard." He replied with a smirk before he walked towards the elevator. As the doors closed, he mouthed two words: "Thank you." Lizbeth grinned back and replied with a peace sign. Once Rattmann had risen from view, Lizbeth turned and headed down the corridor that she knew led to the Relaxation Vaults.

"461... 462... Ah!" Lizbeth spotted Vault 463, and sure enough, it was the only other one with a green light rather than a red one above the door. She opened the door and saw a bed placed in the middle. Taking a deep breath, she closed the door and lay down. She closed her eyes and within ten seconds, the world had blacked out.

* * *

><p>Lizbeth sat up with a stretch. She felt so stiff and unclean. The once pristine room she had fallen asleep in was falling to pieces. None of this was surprising, though, considering that the clock on the wall told her she'd been asleep for about 90 years. Wait, 90 years? Panicking, Lizbeth inspected herself, and to her relief, despite being covered in a layer of grime, she was still nineteen years old. She stood up and walked around for a bit until she was used to moving about again.<p>

"My name is Lizbeth and I am a nineteen year old girl." Lizbeth spoke, though her voice was rough, scratchy and sore. Lizbeth recited the phrase over and over for at least five minutes until her voice was back to the way she remembered it. Taking a deep breath, Lizbeth opened the door and entered the main facility. The first thing she noticed was that it was in ruins. A feeling of dread washed over her, as Lizbeth realized that this most likely meant that GLaDOS was still deactivated. After she managed to navigate the rubble to GLaDOS' chamber, her suspicions were confirmed. GLaDOS was lay exactly where she was before, as lifeless as ever. Remembering her promise to Rattmann, Lizbeth sighed before entering the unstable elevator.

"I will speak to you one more time GLaDOS." Lizbeth promised before she too rose out of sight into the world. "Even if it kills me."

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Dun dun duuuuun! Thanks for reading this chapter and (once again) putting up with my writer's block induced accidental hiatus! _**

**_lulubot3000: I'm really glad you like the story, and I'm very sorry I don't update it as often as I'd like to ._**

**_likekattheboss: Your idea fixed my writers block and inspired at least the second half of this chapter, thanks a ton! :D_**

**_CheezyPortalFan: As much as I love all things Portal, I admit that I am abysmally bad at science, so thanks for letting me know how neurotoxin works! Also sorry if the paragraphs are still long, I love long(ish) paragraphs, so it's a habit, I guess... Oops? ^_^;;_**

**_Anyways, thanks all for reading and sticking with the story this far! Until next time, ~Duck_**


	16. The Moron

The elevator sunk into the main chamber, but it seemed somehow... Different. The facility seemed clean again, and the elevator didn't creak or shake

"GLaDOS?" The woman asked cautiously as the doors opened.

"Well, well, well." A British voice filled the room as the AI swung round, dousing the woman in electric blue light, rather than the amber she knew.

"I see you made it back. But where's your little potato friend?" The robot taunted.

"What the \hell do you mean, potato friend? Who are you?" The woman was straight to the point as usual. The robot seemed a little taken aback.

"How can you forget? I'm big ol' Wheatley, the one who turned her into a potato, the one who threw you into the bowels of the facility, the one who... Hang on, you're not the lady, you're too old. Who are you?" Wheatley leant in curiously to get a better look at the woman, who didn't flinch as he held his optic mere centimetres from her face.

"I'm Lizbeth, and by the way, I'm only thirty five." She stated, folding her arms across her chest as the robot pulled back again.

"Lizbeth..." He seemed to savour her name, "What do you want?" Wheatley asked.

"I want to see GLaDOS." Lizbeth stated.

"You actually want to see... \Her?" Wheatley couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"Yeah, I've not seen her for quite a few years." Lizbeth explained casually, though Wheatley was no less confused.

"But she's a \murderer! Oh, when she kills you, I'll be there to tell you that I warned you, though you probably wouldn't hear me, because, you'd be dead and all, but-" Wheatley went on.

"Listen," Lizbeth interrupted, "I don't know what she did or tried to do to you, but I know for a fact that she won't kill me."

"Your funeral, mate." Wheatley laughed smugly, "But you'll have to come back later." Lizbeth looked up at him.

"And why is that?" She asked with suspicion.

"She's a potato and I threw her down into the old, sectioned off part of the building." Wheatley seemed quite proud of himself.

"If you think that's enough to stop GLaDOS, you are \sorely mistaken." Lizbeth said monotonously. Wheatley just laughed once more.

"Foolish human, for it \has stopped her. You don't see her anywhere, do you? She's not in charge now, is she?" Wheatley looked down at Lizbeth proudly.

"Well \you seem to think she's coming back, I mean, you told me that she was going to kill me less than two minutes ago." Lizbeth was starting to think that this robot was a bit of an idiot.

"Aha! That's where you're mistaken! What I really meant was that \I'm going to kill you!" Wheatley pulled himself up in the manner that a human would stand up straighter.

"No, you clearly said that \she would murder me." Lizbeth rolled her eyes. Wheatley hesitated, not being able to come up with a counter.

"Fine, okay, have your little moment of victory, it'll be your last, because I really am going to have to kill you." He told her, prompting Lizbeth to sigh.

"Yeah, good luck, I've spent a hell of a lot of time around the person who created you, I know how to defeat you." Lizbeth told the robot.

"Yeah, right. All of the engineers are long dead now." Wheatley scoffed.

"Unless said engineer happens to be a genius who knows how to build android bodies and transfer herself and her husband, who was also a scientist here, into said android bodies." Lizbeth explained.

"She'd have to be a complete bloody genius to know how to beat me!" Wheatley followed the statement with a manic laugh.

"This sentence is false." Lizbeth called up to the AI, who just looked at her.

"I think... I'll go true." He answered.

"Ah, see, she told me that would work on any Artificial Intelligence, but since you only have the 'artificial' part going for you, that's probably why it didn't work." Lizbeth told the robot in a mock sweet voice. It took Wheatley at least half a minute to get the joke.

"I am NOT a moron!" Wheatley screamed, it looked as though Lizbeth had touched upon a sensitive topic.

"I didn't say you were a moron, I just strongly implied it." Lizbeth smirked, finding it quite amusing to mess with the robot.

"Ah, think it's funny to mess with me, eh? You think you're smart, do you?" Wheatley tried to sound threatening.

"Yeah." Lizbeth paused. "Yeah, I guess so." Wheatley was not impressed.

"Well see how smart you are when I'm throwing BOMBS at you!" Wheatley announced, and within seconds, he was indeed launching bombs at Lizbeth. Lizbeth was still agile and light on her feet, so she managed to dodge most of them. One bomb got uncomfortably close at one point and knocked her flying, which served as a reminder that Lizbeth was not as young as she used to be. Crawling back up onto her feet, she leapt out of the way of another bomb that landed where she was just lay.

"I guess it's Plan B!" Lizbeth called as she sprinted with all of her power towards the android and leapt, grabbing hold of the indents in his sides, leaving her feet dangling a good foot off of the ground. Wheatley stopped throwing bombs and stared at the human who was hanging from him.

"Who are you?" He whispered as Lizbeth unhooked a safety pin from her shirt.

"Somebody who never gives up." She replied as she pushed the pin into a tiny hole in the side of Wheatley's optic, temporarily putting him in sleep mode. She replaced the pin and went back into the elevator.

"I'll be back, GLaDOS." Lizbeth muttered as she once again rose from the facility.

Wheatley awoke five minutes later, wondering what on Earth just happened.

"Ah, someone's at the door!" Emma opened the from door and saw Lizbeth stood there.

"Oh, Lizbeth! What a surprise! It's lovely to see you!" Emma smiled at the lady. Whilst Lizbeth had been asleep for 90 years, Emma had gotten married to an old friend of hers, Doug Rattmann, and when the two had gotten near the ends of their human lives, Emma had built two android bodies for each of them. When Lizbeth awoke and left Aperture, Emma had offered her a home, to which Lizbeth had accepted, so Emma and Doug Rattmann were like parents to Lizbeth. Lizbeth followed Emma and sat down.

"I know that smell. You've not been in Aperture, have you?" Doug looked at Lizbeth worriedly. Emma had done her best to calm Doug when she transferred his personality, as he couldn't take medicine as an android, and though she did a pretty good job, he still had a deep distrust for Aperture Science, and the thought of him, or anyone, going back there still made him nervous.

"I, er, yes." She admitted. "But it's changed."

"Changed?" Emma asked curiously.

"Yeah. GLaDOS is awake, but there was a British Core with a blue optic in GLaDOS' body instead of her, and he said that he'd turned GLaDOS into a potato and thrown her, and apparently a girl who looks a bit like me, into the depths of the facility." Lizbeth explained to her adoptive parents, fully aware of how strange it sounded.

"The Intelligence Dampening Sphere is in charge, and Caroline is a potato..." Emma stated in disbelief.

"If it's how you've described, the girl is a test subject named Chell. GLaDOS is in good hands." Doug commented, causing both women to look at him.

"How do you know?" Lizbeth asked. Doug subconsciously placed a hand over where he used to have a deep turret wound on his human body.

"Trust me." Was his reply.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Hey look, a chapter that DIDN'T come after a hiatus! Wow! Thanks for reading! This character is just a little fun one to show that Lizbeth has been living her life out there for a good sixteen years and is all grown up, and also because I really, really, REALLY wanted to write Wheatley. Yes, Emma and Rattmann got married. I ship it. The next chapter won't be centred around Lizbeth, but instead GLaDOS and Chell._**

**_Macmine411: Maaaybe, maybe not. Without spoiling anything, all I can say is you'll find out in due time ;)_**

**_CheezyPortalFan: I changed both this chapter and the one before it to say that Lizbeth was asleep for 90 years because I honestly prefer that to 50,000, so thanks for the help~! And I have been planning other stories in my spare time when I have writers block, because then it'll help me on a new story once I've finished this one. Also, the subject I'm best at is probably English, I'm not too great with numbers, and whoever first mixed the alphabet with numbers was one cruel person._**

**_Until next time, ~Duck_**


	17. The Potato

_The first thing she noticed was that the facility was in complete ruin. The second thing she noticed was her murderer stood before her._

GLaDOS only knew it was her murderer because of the countless times she relived this woman killing her, but that was it. It may have been due to the amount of time she'd been off, or the fact that she'd been torn to pieces and thrown down an incinerator, but GLaDOS had gaps in her memories, the earliest memory being switched on for the first time, then nothing, then a lot of murder, then nothing again, and finally Chell's test and some more murder, which that time happened to be her own. That was all she could remember, besides a few random things that she couldn't put her metaphorical finger on, such as the tears of a small, strawberry blonde haired child, the smirk of a black haired girl with piercing blue eyes, an older woman with a brown ponytail, and this girl, who GLaDOS recalled was named Chell, killing her.

All the AI knew was that not only did Chell kill her, but this girl took her memories away, ensuring that she'd never figure out who the child and the older girl were and what they meant to her and made her forget about people she must have been close to. GLaDOS could not forgive her for that, in fact, she had half a mind to kill her for it, but instead, she looked her dead in the eye and spoke calmly.

"Oh. It's you." Chell looked up at the supercomputer with only the slightest hint of fear in her eyes, sensing her anger. GLaDOS wasn't going to kill her, just yet anyway, but she was going to make her pay for what she did. GLaDOS lifted her personality core friend roughly, squeezing him in his weak spot to turn him off before tossing him to the side. She then carefully lifted Chell and dropped her down the incinerator.

Okay. Credit where it's due. GLaDOS had forgotten how crafty Chell was even without a sidekick. With a sidekick, well, GLaDOS' lack of neurotoxin and abundance of defective turrets proved exactly how capable they were. GLaDOS had seen Chell's escape coming from a mile off, the sabotage was quite surprising, though in hindsight, to be expected, but attempting to initiate a core transfer? This was new. All GLaDOS knew at that moment was that she could NOT let Chell press that button. She couldn't. Not if GLaDOS had any say in it. Chell was NOT pressing that-

She'd done it.

Somehow, Chell had bypassed GLaDOS' defence mechanisms and pressed the button. Chell's little friend, the moron who was about to be in charge of the facility, was rambling on.

"What if it hurts, what if it _really_ hurts?" He asked nervously.

"Oh it will. Believe me, it will." GLaDOS stated. Apart from the crystal clear memory of her own murder, GLaDOS also vaguely recalled that she was somehow forced into a core transfer many years ago, and that it hurt something awful. However, on a brighter note, she had murdered the people who'd done it to her.

The little claws, or whatever they were, GLaDOS still didn't know, began to tinker away at GLaDOS' core until GLaDOS could no longer feel the connection to the facility, and one quick check confirmed that she was completely disconnected, and that core, that moron, was in charge. That moron... GLaDOS realized that she knew his voice too well, and she knew exactly where from. Before she'd murdered the engineers who had forced her into the core transfer, they'd tried everything to make her, well, behave. One thing they tried was an Intelligence Dampening Sphere which was programmed to come up with an endless stream of bad ideas. The plus was that he worked, he was undoubtedly a moron, the minus was GLaDOS was too smart to actually take his advice, and instead he just drove her crazy. This was the core. He was in charge.

And now she was a potato.

GLaDOS didn't know how things had changed so fast. One minute she was perfectly happy, watching the person she disliked with a passion complete deadly tests, next minute, she was still watching the person she disliked complete tests, but at the bottom of the facility and attached to a portal gun. The looming consequence of death was less appealing when it was her own life at stake. Suddenly, the speakers in the room crackled to life and a strong, male voice filled the room. GLaDOS could have sworn that she knew it from somewhere.

"Caroline, are the compensation vouchers ready?" The man spoke to someone on his side of the speaker.

"Yes sir, Mr. Johnson..." GLaDOS found herself subconsciously speaking alongside the perky voice. Chell looked at her in shock, not knowing what had come over her, and honestly, GLaDOS didn't either. Confused, GLaDOS tried to figure out what had happened, but due to the frantic confusion coupled with the low voltage, she shorted out.

_Think, GLaDOS, Think._ GLaDOS and Chell were back up in the main facility, and GLaDOS was thinking as hard as the potato allowed her to trying to hatch up a plan to get her back into her body. The paradox didn't work, the moron had too low of an IQ, so force was looking like the only option. Eventually, she came up with an idea. Not an entirely solid one, but something.

"I think I can break us out of here in the next chamber. Just play along." GLaDOS whispered to Chell. GLaDOS' plan went right out of the window though, as the moron managed to execute his first and only intelligent plan and attempted to kill them both. Luckily, Chell was fast and so far was avoiding all of his traps with ease.

"You really need to thank this girl properly as soon as you get back into your body." A quiet voice spoke out in the back of GLaDOS' mind. GLaDOS had heard different voices from all kinds of cores all of her life, but this voice was different. It was perky and sweet, but undoubtedly her own.

The man, Cave Johnson, he'd said something about putting a person inside a computer... And the voice that GLaDOS heard, it was definately her own, but it sounded more like the woman, Caroline, from downstairs. Could it be? All at once, different pieces memory came flooding back to the AI until there were no more gaps. The child that she couldn't put a name to... Aria. The girl with the piercing blue eyes... Lizbeth. The lady with the brown hair... Emma. Herself? Caroline. She was Caroline. She'd been entrusted with the facility and she wasn't going to let it go this easily. The moron was going down, and hopefully in flames.

The moron had been defeated. All Chell had to do was press the button.

"Go press it!" GLaDOS screamed at Chell, who had every intention of doing so in the first place. Chell portaled over, but before she could press it, the moron blew it up. GLaDOS sighed as a roof tile clattered to the floor. So that was it. Her facility, everything she'd worked so hard to achieve, everything she'd ever known and loved, destroyed at the hands of this moron. Chell was dazed, yet not out of action. She looked like she had a plan, and that gave GLaDOS hope. She watched as Chell carefully aimed her portal gun through the gap in the roof, ready to place the portal that would link to the one under Wheatley. It dawned on GLaDOS what Chell was doing. Moon rocks conducted portals. That was the moon. Chell pulled the trigger.

Everything seemed to freeze for a moment. Had it worked? A slight flash from the moon confirmed that it did. The vacuum soon began to suck things from the facility, sending them flying into the dark abyss that was space, including Chell and Wheatley. GLaDOS felt a surge of emotion as she saw Chell fly into the black. Even after all that Chell had put GLaDOS through and vice versa, even through all the hate both of them had for the other, after coming this far together, GLaDOS could NOT let her die like this. Chell deserved better. GLaDOS managed to quickly access the main system, disconnect the moron, reconnect herself and get the claw up and ready just in time to hear the moron frantically claiming that he could fix it.

"I already fixed it. And you are _not_ coming back." GLaDOS shouted, voice seething with rage as she knocked Wheatley into deep space before grabbing Chell and pulling her into the facility, where she promptly collapsed.

GLaDOS set about restoring the facility. It wasn't all that hard, just some missing panels and the like, it was nothing compared to the damage Chell caused 90 years ago. She'd just about finished when Chell stirred and stood up. GLaDOS gave out a sigh of relief. Sure, she'd hated this girl for as long as she could remember, but after all they'd been through, GLaDOS felt closer to Chell. Not quite friends, but maybe allies. Allies looked out for each other, and though it hurt GLaDOS a little, she knew that Chell would be happier and safer. Anyway, after all that had happened, a bit of alone time didn't seem so bad to GLaDOS after all.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Once again, thanks for reading! I know that this chapter is quite patchy, but that's because you see most of GLaDOS' POV, and I didn't really want to write the whole plot of Portal 2, so I just wrote bits I could work with._**

**_ThoseRedLights: Thanks! You might see Aria again, but then again, you might not. You'll see. Also, I just got really attached to Emma's character and couldn't bear to even imply her death, so android it was! (Sorry ^_^;;)_**

**_Goldie Fazbear: Thank you! And don't worry, I'm going to see this story through to the very last chapter. I may take the occasional writers block induced break, but this story will carry on until it gets the best damn ending I'm capable of writing. And I should spend less time listening to Cave Johnson's dialogue._**

**_Until next time, ~Duck_**


	18. The Reunion

GLaDOS was watching as the orange co-operative testing bot pushed the blue one into acid. Again. With a sigh, GLaDOS switched off the video.

"Everything alright?" GLaDOS' latest project spoke up from just underneath her.

"Yes, just the bots being stupid again." GLaDOS sighed once more.

"They tend to do that." GLaDOS' project agreed with a smile. GLaDOS' latest project was an android that had been keeping her company in the few weeks that Chell had been gone, and surprisingly enough, GLaDOS didn't mind it.

"Maybe _you'd_ make a better test subject." GLaDOS mocked.

"Come on, GLaDOS, I know you wouldn't dare." The android smirked.

"You're right. My standards aren't _that_ low." GLaDOS replied, making the android shake it's head.

"You love me really." The android grinned as GLaDOS rolled her optic.

"I don't have time for such human like emotions. Unlike those damn bots," GLaDOS had turned the video on, spotted the robots dancing to celebrate the completion of the test and turned on her microphone. "Do you know how stupid you look right now?" GLaDOS asked the bots, who stopped dancing and proceeded into the next test chamber.

"Still being stupid?" The android asked and GLaDOS nodded.

"The control room's back there if you want to have a bit of fun." GLaDOS stated with an evil tone of voice. The android looked nervous for a moment before shrugging and heading where GLaDOS had motioned. GLaDOS turned back on the video of the bots and couldn't help but laugh at the bots' confusion as the panels sprung into life and turned to test chamber into an ever changing maze. GLaDOS was still laughing at the incompetence of the bots when she heard a rhythmic tap, tap, tap on her floor that got louder before stopping completely. Turning the video off and turning to look at the newcomer, she was slightly taken aback at what she saw. Stood facing her was a woman around her early to mid thirties with black hair pulled up into a loose, messy bun, a confident smirk and piercing blue eyes.

"You're back." GLaDOS stated, not knowing what else to say.

"After all these years, I would have thought you would have been more happy to see me." Lizbeth replied mockingly.

"Oh ha ha. And yes, it's been at least 90 years, so would you mind telling me how you're not even over 50?" GLaDOS stared closely at Lizbeth, dousing her in amber light.

"Long story involving an old friend of yours and a very long nap." Lizbeth summarized and GLaDOS nodded, not entirely sure if she wanted the full story. "Though I'm not the only one who had a long nap, am I?" Lizbeth smirked at the supercomputer, who sighed.

"Oh great. You found out. Well that was just a minor inconvenience." GLaDOS tried to explain.

"Speaking of minor inconveniences, would you mind telling me how you ended up as a potato?" Lizbeth asked. GLaDOS was hoping that she wouldn't find out.

"That's a long story involving a moron and a mute lunatic. Never speak of it again." GLaDOS replied, making Lizbeth giggle a bit.

"Yeah, I met that moron. He's a bit strange." Lizbeth stated.

"Are you in any position to call anyone strange?" GLaDOS replied. Lizbeth rolled her eyes.

"Very funny. Where did that moron even go?" Lizbeth asked.

"He's somewhere in deep space." GLaDOS sounded amused.

"Are you serious?" Lizbeth laughed.

"Since when am I ever not?" GLaDOS responded and Lizbeth nodded in agreement. There was a slight pause.

"So. Have you killed anyone since the last time we met?" Lizbeth asked jokingly.

"I've tried," Lizbeth froze, "But no." She relaxed again.

"Too busy being a potato?" Lizbeth asked, once again smirking.

"_Actually_, if you must know, I've been working on a project." GLaDOS then turned to the corridor behind her. "I know you've been listening." Lizbeth watched curiously as something shifted in the shadows. "Come on out!" With GLaDOS' last words, a young girl around 14 stepped into the light.

"It's been a while."

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Thanks for reading! I know it's a short chapter, but I didn't want to give away who GLaDOS' project is just yet. I'll just leave you with the hints for now. _**

**_ThoseRedLights: Thanks! I'm glad you liked the structure of the last chapter, I just didn't want to retell the whole game, as most people know what happened already, and it wouldn't be all that interesting._**

**_Macmine411: I'm glad you're excited! Sorry this one's so short, but I hope it was still okay! Also, how adorable is the curiosity core? ^^_**

**_Until next time, ~Duckie ^^_**


	19. The Project

Lizbeth stared at the girl, who had long, wavy, strawberry blonde hair and honey coloured eyes that sparkled as they hit the light. The two stared at each other for a few seconds before the girl spoke.

"You don't remember me, do you?" The girl sounded defeated. Lizbeth snapped out of her daze and sprinted over to her and hugged her tightly.

"How could I ever forget you, Aria?" Lizbeth whispered as Aria returned the hug.

"Do you remember how Aria played around with my files before she deleted herself? Turns out she made a backup of herself for me to find. I just had to make the body." GLaDOS stated.

"No virus?" Lizbeth asked.

"No virus." GLaDOS replied. Lizbeth and Aria let go of each other.

"I couldn't bear the thought of never seeing you both again." Aria whispered.

"And I couldn't bear the thought of never seeing _you_ again!" Lizbeth replied, making the girl smile.

"Aria's matured quite a bit since the last time you saw her, but she's still got a long way to go, that's why I matched her intelliegence and appearance to that of a 14 year old. It seemed fitting." GLaDOS explained.

"Though how many 14 year olds could say they've been dead for about 8 years?" Lizbeth asked with a smirk.

"How many 14 year olds are androids?" GLaDOS responded.

"Fair enough." Lizbeth laughed, putting her arm around Aria.

"How've you been?" Aria asked Lizbeth, who laughed.

"I've been great, thanks. Emma and her husband looked after me like their own daughter for a few years until I found my own place. How have you been?" Lizbeth asked.

"Wait, Emma got _married_?" GLaDOS interrupted before Aria could reply.

"Yeah, to another old friend of yours, Doug Rattmann. They're both androids now." Lizbeth told the supercomputer, who couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"That's amazing!" Aria clapped her hands together happily.

"Yeah, I'm happy for them." GLaDOS truly meant it.

"GLaDOS... Happy for someone?" Lizbeth exclaimed in mock surprise, Aria mirroring her over-dramatic fainting action.

"Watch it. I'm perfectly capable of being happy for others. I just don't do it much." GLaDOS explained.

"You're telling us! Aria, how long have you put up with joy-sucker over here?" Lizbeth asked the now giggling android.

"Said the one who made an effort to come back." GLaDOS commented.

"I guess I just missed all of this. Anyway, I get to see my little sister again!" Lizbeth grinned at Aria.

"I'm your little sister?" Aria asked in surprise.

"Well you told me I was like a big sister to you, so why not?" Lizbeth winked.

"Hang on, I created Aria from my own data, so technically she's my child. If you two are now sisters, does that make me your mother?" GLaDOS asked Lizbeth, horrified.

"No no no no no no _no_." Lizbeth couldn't shake her head fast enough.

"Good. Glad we're clear on that." GLaDOS stated.

"I'm just happy that I have a real family now!" Aria cheered, clapping her hands together.

"Yeah, you've got a mother, a sister and even a niece!" Lizbeth told the girl, who looked up in surprise.

"A niece?" Aria asked. Lizbeth grinned in reply.

"You're not saying... You have a child?" GLaDOS asked, just as surprised as Aria.

"Yes. Actually, it's her sixth birthday tomorrow. I'm sure it'd be the best birthday ever if she got to meet her auntie and the woman she was named after." Lizbeth explained, pointing to Aria and then GLaDOS.

"You named your daughter after me?" GLaDOS asked in shock.

"I did, and I'm sure little Caroline would love to meet both of you!" Lizbeth told them.

"I'll come!" Aria cheered excitedly. GLaDOS thought for a moment.

"Fine. I guess I can dig out my old android body." She reluctantly agreed.

GLaDOS lifted her lifeless android body from behind the panel and Lizbeth nearly passed out at the sight of it.

"What happened to it?" She asked, horrified.

"An expedition into the depths of the facility, multiple explosions and 90 years of laying there isn't usually the best way to preserve machinery." GLaDOS explained.

"This is going to be more work than I thought." Lizbeth whispered dizzily as she hurried off to get what she needed. GLaDOS ran some tests on the body and thankfully it was still working fine. Lizbeth got back with everything they needed and got to work.

Nearly two hours later, GLaDOS' android body was as good as new. The torn, dirty clothes had been replaced with clean ones that looked identical, the tattered, greying hair had been restored back to a long sheet of pure white and there wasn't a single stain on her pale skin. The android was lay just like how it was all those years ago, and the trio just stared at it for a moment before Lizbeth broke the silence.

"I'll pick you up first thing tomorrow." Lizbeth waved before leaving.

"What the hell did we sign up for." GLaDOS sighed after Lizbeth had left, but Aria was too busy spinning around the room to properly take notice. "A party for six year olds." GLaDOS sighed once more. "You'll fit right in."

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Hey! Thanks for reading! Well, Aria is back! I'm sure most of you saw this coming a mile off, but hey. Aria was never originally planned to come back, but I just got so attached ^_^;;_**

**_ThoseRedLights: Did you guess Aria? Probably. Anyway, I'm glad that you've become attached to the characters, and don't worry, I'm not gonna kill all of them off in the last chapter or anything like that ^^_**

**_brekken18: Here ya go!_**

**_CheezyPortalFan: Yeah, it was her conscience, but she even says in the game that it's her voice, so I wasn't sure what else to go off. And she's implying that Aria would be a worse test subject than 4-legged animals. Or plants. (And was the last chapter that bad? Sorry! .;;)_**


	20. The Party

Like she'd promised, Lizbeth arrived at Aperture first thing in the morning, where she found Aria excitedly bouncing around and GLaDOS sat in her android body.

"You ready?" Lizbeth asked the two.

"Yeah!" Aria cheered.

"Anything to stop her bouncing, spinning, dancing and everything else she's been doing since you left." GLaDOS sighed as she stood up and the three headed towards Lizbeth's little house just outside the city. They had to get the train again, so the trio headed to the station and got on the correct train, the doors once again slamming shut with a solid thud.

"Well that's not changed." GLaDOS muttered. One thing that had changed, however, was the fact that there was no obnoxious woman stood in front of them this time, much to GLaDOS' relief. For most of the train ride, the whole group was mostly quiet. It didn't seem long since they'd last done this, yet so much had happened. Aria had found out who she was, Lizbeth had made a life for herself and GLaDOS had learned how to trust, yet things didn't feel any different. They all felt it, but none spoke of it.

A few minutes later, they arrived at their station, which broke the awkward tension, and headed off towards Lizbeth's house. Lizbeth opened the door and the three entered. Lizbeth motioned for the other two to wait there for a moment before heading into the kitchen where her daughter was.

"Mommy!" Little Caroline shouted as she launched herself at Lizbeth, who pulled her little girl close.

"Caroline, I've got a little surprise for you." Lizbeth told Caroline.

"Really?" The little girl's face lit up. Lizbeth turned to the door.

"Aria!" She called.

"_The_ Aria?" Caroline asked in disbelief. Her eyes widened in awe as Aria entered the room and bounced over, crouching down to her height and clasping the little girl's hands in her metallic ones.

"Hey, sweetie. Nice to meet you, I'm Aria." Aria grinned at Caroline, who grinned back.

"Mommy told me all about you!" Caroline told Aria, who smiled up at Lizbeth.

"And you look just like your Mommy." Aria replied, making the little girl's face brighten even more.

"Mommy," Caroline tugged on Lizbeth, "If Aria's here, then does that mean..." She looked at her mother who smiled.

"Hey, GLaDOS!" She called. Aria watched as GLaDOS elegantly walked into the room, arms folded.

"Hello." GLaDOS greeted the girl awkwardly, not even kneeling to her height.

"GLaDOS..." Caroline looked up adoringly at the amber-eyed android. "Thank you for making Mommy so happy."

"I don't think I did anything like-" GLaDOS began.

"You did!" Caroline interrupted, standing up tall, but still not reaching GLaDOS' waist. "Mommy never stops talking about you and the _amazing_ adventure you went on!" GLaDOS was taken aback, both by the fact that a little girl of all people had interrupted her, and the fact that Lizbeth had talked about her to her family. Lizbeth placed her hand on her daughter's shoulder, calming the child.

"You two are staying for the party, right?" Lizbeth asked the two. GLaDOS opened her mouth to object but Aria cut in first.

"Of course!" She exclaimed with a smile that Caroline soon matched. GLaDOS rolled her eyes.

"I guess I have to. It can't be too bad, right?" GLaDOS replied.

Her question was answered almost an hour later when Caroline's party guests began to arrive.

Lizbeth was busy handing out drinks and snacks to the the children and Aria was running about with the goal of playing with each and every person in the room, leaving GLaDOS to stand in the corner, hoping to all things science that none of them came near her. In contrast to Aria's innocent 'human-esque' appearance and downright childish personality, GLaDOS' formal appearance, mixed with her amber eyes that seemed to glow slightly, GLaDOS wasn't having any problems keeping the children away from her. Aria ran over to GLaDOS with a huge grin.

"Having fun?" GLaDOS asked the younger AI in a voice that suggested that she didn't really care. Of course, the implication that came with the flat tone went right over Aria's head.

"Yeah! Everyone's so fun!" She beamed at GLaDOS, who raised an eyebrow.

"You fit right in with all of these kids." GLaDOS told Aria with a slight smirk, which was yet another detail that she missed.

"Let me introduce you to everyone!" Aria told the older AI, who at that point had pretty much just given up. Aria pointed at a girl who looked quite similar to how Aria did when she was six. "That's Kat. She's really lovely and actually quite energetic!" Aria then pointed at the girl who was sat with Caroline. "That's Scarlett. She's really creative, and she likes confetti! The good stuff too!" Aria spun a full turn before pointing at a boy who was sat playing a game with a few other people. "That's Porter, he's really helpful, he showed me how to play the game he's playing and I think I've gotten better at it!" Aria pointed at another girl closer to the back. "That's Lulu, she's really friendly and-"

"Okay, I get it. You've met everyone." GLaDOS sighed, interrupting Aria, who nodded. "Don't forget, as soon as this party is over, we're going to say goodbye to Lizbeth then we're heading straight back to Aperture." GLaDOS told Aria firmly.

"Say goodbye? Will we ever see Lizbeth again?" Aria asked in a small voice. GLaDOS went to reply but faltered. For the first time since she could remember, she'd been presented with a question she couldn't answer.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: I went on an accidental hiatus again, didn't I? This time it was a mix of writers block (which is why this chapter is meh) and Tumblr. Not gonna lie, there was a lot of Tumblr involved._**

**_PixelsShattered: Yeah, Lizbeth got married during the events of Portal 2 (Probably). And I did have it as 50,000 years at first, but another reviewer pointed out that it's more likely around 80-90 years, and I honestly liked that better._**

**_CheezyPortalFan: Damn, that would have made a more interesting chapter . I do admit that I am terrible at writing GLaDOS, probably because I'm closer to Aria in personality and I admire GLaDOS more than I can relate to her._**

**_Macmine411 + Guest: I WANNA PINCH CURIOSITY'S METAPHORICAL MECHANICAL CHEEKS (also thank you ^^)_**

**_brekken18: Here ya go!_**

**_ThoseRedLights: _**(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ **_Confetti everywhere :D_**

**_Also yes, the party guests are all named after you guys, or at least the ones who've reviewed the most, I still love everyone who has made it this far, but I couldn't physically put everyone who's ever read this fic in here! If I've got your gender wrong or you'd simply prefer me to use another name for your character (I went off usernames ^_^;:), don't hesitate to send me a message and I'll fix it ASAP ^^_**

**_Kat = likekattheboss_**

**_Scarlett = ThoseRedLights_**

**_Porter = CheezyPortalFan_**

**_Lulu = Lulubot3000_**


	21. The Decision

The party continued for another couple of hours before the children began to disperse.

"I don't even remember getting this much confetti..." Lizbeth muttered as she began attempting to brush up the seemingly endless mound of it.

"Mommy! Mackenzie left her jacket!" Caroline called from the other side of the room, holding up the jacket in question. Lizbeth walked over to her daughter and neatly placed the jacket on the ever-growing mound of items that had been left by the other children an proceeded to continue cleaning the mess.

As Lizbeth was busy cleaning, Aria turned to GLaDOS and spoke.

"GLaDOS. \Will we ever see Lizbeth again?" Aria asked the AI with an amount of authority that even surprised GLaDOS, though she was too prideful to show it.

"That depends entirely. I can't be running up to the surface every other day, I have tests to run and a facility to manage." GLaDOS paused, "You, however, don't have to do any of that." Aria looked at GLaDOS with confusion.

"What do you mean?" Aria asked.

"After you spoke to me before, I had a little conversation with Lizbeth." Upon hearing her name, Lizbeth walked over to the conversing pair.

"You know that you're like my little sister," Lizbeth interrupted GLaDOS, "And you're so good with Caroline. I was wondering, how would you like to leave Aperture and live with me?"

The last sentence echoed around Aria's head for what seemed like an eternity.

"What do you think?" Lizbeth asked with a smile.

"I... Can't..." Aria whispered. "I really do love you Lizbeth, it's just... Aperture is my home."

"Yes, we know, but if you lived with Lizbeth, Aperture wouldn't be your home, so I'm not seeing the issue here." GLaDOS told the small AI cooly.

"You really don't get it, do you?" Aria looked to the floor. A single tear fell from her eyes and followed her teary gaze to the floor.

"I think you're the one not getting things. All you'll have to do is move in with Lizbeth. How are you not understanding-"

"No! That's not how it works!" Aria shouted, looking GLaDOS straight in the eyes, showing the frustration that had surfaced behind her own, catching the older AI by surprise ever so slightly. "I love you Lizbeth, I really do, but I'm an Aperture device. Aperture's where I belong." With the last part, the smaller android calmed down to the point of defeat.

"Aria..." Lizbeth whispered.

"So you're staying at Aperture?" GLaDOS asked impatiently, as she was not too great with human emotions and wanted avoid any more drama. Aria gave a resigned nod of agreement.

"I promise I'll come back here," Aria lifted her pinky finger up to Lizbeth, "Please, promise me that you'll come back to me too." Lizbeth smiled for a moment before linking fingers with the android.

"Deal."

Not long later, the two androids were back on the train, both of them stood in silence.

"GLaDOS." Aria spoke, looking up at the white-haired android. "Do you want to know another reason I decided to stay with you?" She asked.

"What?" GLaDOS replied in a tone that suggested that she didn't care, though, admittedly, she was slightly curious.

"Because if I did, I wouldn't be doing the thing I was originally built to do." Aria explained.

"And that is?" GLaDOS asked the child impatiently.

"Looking after you." Aria smiled.

"I'm the most intelligent being within at least a fifty mile radius, and last time I checked, I'm pretty self sustainable." GLaDOS assured Aria.

"Yes, I agree, but you practically said it yourself." The train came to their station and the doors slid open. "I'm the one who taught you how to love again."

They headed back to Aperture, Aria leading the way for the most part, though relying on GLaDOS for direction when she lost her way in the vast wheat fields on a few occasions. Upon returning to the facility, GLaDOS immediately uploaded herself into her usual body and Aria went to her bedroom to go into sleep mode. After a few minutes of being alone, GLaDOS found herself feeling something strange. Instantly she knew that she would never share the feeling with anyone, in fact, she despised having it at all. However, no matter how much she'd try to deny it, she had to admit this; without Aria, her life wouldn't be the same.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: Hey guys! This chapter was quite hard to write, in a hurry to end the last one in a dramatic way, I didn't think ahead and ended up giving myself writer's block, but I hope it's okay! By the way, 'Mackenzie' is Macmine411, and all of the confetti was most likely left by ThoseRedLights._**

**_On another note, I've rewritten the first two chapters because they were so badly done, so I really hope they're better now!_**

**_LuLu-Bot3000 and Razaraga: Aaah thank you! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕_****_)ﾉ_****_*:･ﾟ✧_**

**_ThoseRedLights: Party poppers are life! And Aria was probably too excited to party to think about bringing a cube :p_**

**_likekattheboss: Don't worry if you can't review, school work is a pain, why else do you think I'm always slow updating the story? (Also Tumblr, but you know... By the way I'm duckiebubbles there too :p)_**

**_Macmine411: I've been watching your videos, they're really good! I think I sent you a message, but youtube messaging sucks a bit so it might have gone thud._**

**_CheezyPortalFan: At this point, GLaDOS has warmed to Lizbeth and Aria, so any sarcastic comments are pretty much just friendly jokes, though GLaDOS would probably deny that completely and totally. Also, you're not an 'evil' critic, your constructive criticism has helped me quite a lot, and I like to think I've improved because of it, so thank you so much! _**

**_I swear I'm trying to keep these notes as small as possible... Ah well. Until next time, ~Duckie_**


	22. The End

It was a normal day at Aperture Science.

"Aria, did you put the test results in the correct tray this time?" GLaDOS asked the auburn haired android who looked to be around sixteen.

"I think so. The silver one, right?" Aria told the supercomputer who sighed in relief.

"Thank heavens, we don't really want a repeat of last time, do we?" GLaDOS asked, causing Aria to smile in embarrassment. She was about to reply when they were both distracted by the sound of the surface elevator making it's decent. When it had reached the floor, the doors opened with a hiss and a frail lady in her late eighties stepped out. Her short, silvery grey hair fell loose around her shoulders, and though her face was wrinkled and worn with age, her eyes were as piercingly blue as always. She slowly limped out of the elevator and smiled at her oldest friends.

"Lizbeth!" Aria called, running to greet her, though she had long since learned to not jump at the lady, who stopped being able to hold the small AI's weight a mere two decades ago.

"Has Caroline gone already?" GLaDOS asked the human, who nodded.

"Yes, she left yesterday. It's strange to think she's going to be living all alone overseas, but she's a grown woman, I'm sure she can handle it." The old lady smiled.

"She's gone to Glasgow, right?" Aria asked perkily. Lizbeth nodded in confirmation.

"Yes, she's studying robotics over there. I told her to phone Emma straight away if she needed any help." Lizbeth grinned.

"So what brings you here? Did you need anything or are you just really, really lonely." GLaDOS asked with only the slightest hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"Well, you can probably tell that I'm getting very old, I probably don't have a huge number of years left." Lizbeth explained, looking off to the side, Aria doing the same, "There's one problem though."

"And that is?" GLaDOS prompted.

Lizbeth looked up with a slight smile, meeting the eyes, or in one's case, optic, of both of her friends "I don't want to go just yet."

With a hiss of steam, Lizbeth stepped out of the machine and flexed her new mechanical arms and legs. A strand of jet black hair fell loose of her messy bun and dangled in front of her eyes, making her grin. Aria launched herself at the now younger woman, who hugged the child back.

"I figured twenty four was a good age for you." GLaDOS told the former human, who looked up to face the supercomputer.

"Thanks, GLaDOS." Lizbeth smiled warmly.

"Wait, now that she's an android, does that mean Lizbeth is living with us now?" Aria asked eagerly. Lizbeth and GLaDOS looked at each other for a moment in silent consultation before looking back at the auburn haired girl.

"I guess so." Lizbeth grinned, opening her arms wide for Aria to run into, embracing her in a tight hug.

"So does that make us a family?" Aria asked.

"More than ever." Lizbeth smiled. She was home. They were all together. None of them would trade that for the world.

* * *

><p><strong><em>AN: It is with a heavy heart that I change this story from 'In-Progress' to 'Complete'._**

**_I'd like to thank every single person who read, favourited, followed and reviewed. I've been writing this since September 2014 and I kind of got a little emotional when I wrote this ending. Lizbeth and Aria are like my little mind-children and I'm going to miss writing them so much. I loved reading every review, you all helped me so much and I'm forever grateful to you all._**

**_After this story, I am planning either a sequel to my first story or a completely new one that I've been planning for the longest time, but for the time being, I'm planning on focusing on my little Caveline fluff fic based on headcannons by my Tumblr friends dutch-geek and hardc0ver._**

**_ThoseRedLights: You don't need to ruin the ending, here it is! (If you wanted to spoil the ending you could have sent me a message but I'd have probably laughed evilly anyway) Also Aria would probably like to have a confetti party with you too (ﾉ◕ヮ◕_****_)ﾉ_****_*:･ﾟ✧_**

**_macmine411: Aah I'm glad you liked the ending to the last chapter, I hope this one is okay too! I sent you another message, though it may be easier if you send me a message over Tumblr (duckiebubbles) as I'm never off that haha *sweats*_**

**_Thank you all for sticking with this story to the end! ~Duckie_**


End file.
